Biden spent four years asking foster parents to give up their Christian faith.
Loving parents were excluded because they wouldn’t go woke.
There are 330,000 children in this country waiting for a home, and what Trump just did changes the odds for every one of them.
How Biden's Gender Ideology Rule Banned Christian Foster Parents
In 2022, the Biden administration quietly rewired the entire foster care pipeline.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a federal rule requiring prospective foster parents to affirm a child's self-identified gender – including preferred pronouns, "gender-affirming" clothing, and in some cases, medical interventions many Christians consider mutilation.
Families who refused – or who simply said they believed biology is real – were disqualified.
States began revoking foster care licenses over it.
Vermont officials pulled the licenses of two Christian couples – the Wuotis and the Gantts – despite describing the families as "amazing," "wonderful," and "welcoming."
Massachusetts required foster parents to sign a formal nondiscrimination policy or lose their license.
A federal court in Texas vacated the rule on constitutional grounds, finding that forcing families to make an affirmation pledge violated the First Amendment.
Biden's own bureaucrats tried to breathe life back into it anyway.
The Foster Care Shortage Biden Made Worse by Targeting Faith-Based Families
The numbers tell the real story.
Only 57 licensed foster homes are available for every 100 children entering the system, according to Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.
Nearly 330,000 children are currently in foster care nationwide.
Children are sleeping in hospitals, police stations, and unlicensed group homes because there aren't enough families to take them in.
Who fills that gap? Christians do.
A 2024 Bipartisan Policy Center report found that practicing Christians are twice as likely to foster or adopt as the general population.
Nearly two-thirds of foster parents attend church weekly – compared to roughly 40% of Americans overall.
Biden's rule targeted exactly those people – the families most likely to raise their hand.
"Your most likely families to raise their hand and volunteer as a foster family are those who have sincerely held religious convictions," Adams told Fox News Digital. "So the message that you send is so important."
Trump Rescinds Biden Foster Care Rule and Franklin Graham Responds
The Trump administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register officially rescinding Biden's 2022 gender ideology mandate.
The administration also sent warning letters to all 50 states: states receiving federal child welfare funding cannot remove children from homes solely because a foster parent declines to affirm a child's gender self-identification.
Removal requires objective evidence of actual harm – not a disagreement over pronouns.
Adams said the move sends a welcoming message to every family willing to step forward.
"The message we're trying to send is we're going to roll out the red carpet for everybody," Adams said. "We need more foster homes."
Franklin Graham – president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association – posted his response publicly: "Thank you President Trump for helping families of faith to be able to foster children again. This is a great win for children in need—and we’re not tired of winning President Donald Trump!”
Four years of Biden ideology, undone in a single rulemaking. Franklin Graham said it plainly: thank you.
Biden Used Vulnerable Children to Enforce a Woke Agenda
This wasn't accidental policy drift.
Biden's HHS pushed the rule as a mechanism for ensuring foster children had access to gender transition interventions – on the government's dime, over the objections of the families raising them.
The American Enterprise Institute warned at the time that the rule assumed ideological affirmation was the only acceptable form of safe parenting – a position the science no longer supports, with Europe now restricting gender interventions for minors across the board.
AEI scholars warned Biden's rule would shrink the pool of foster families at the exact moment the system needed more.
They were right.
Biden's legacy in foster care: fewer homes, more kids in government facilities, Christians locked out for believing what their Bibles say.
Trump's move doesn't just reverse a rule.
It sends a message to every Christian family that was turned away – Vermont's Wuotis and Gantts, Massachusetts parents told their faith disqualified them, every family Biden screened out for believing boys are boys and girls are girls – that the door is open again.
There are 330,000 children in this country waiting to find out if anyone is coming – and Franklin Graham already knows who picks up the phone.
Sources:
- Alec Schemmel, "Trump Admin Squashes Controversial Biden Rule Forcing Foster Homes to Affirm Children's LGBTQ+ Status," Fox News, March 6, 2026.
- Gabrielle M. Etzel, "Trump HHS Undoes Biden Rule Forcing Foster Homes to Affirm Transgender Children," Washington Examiner, March 6, 2026.
- Tyler Arnold, "Trump Administration Repeals Gender, Sexuality Affirmation Rules for Foster Homes," National Catholic Register, March 6, 2026.
- Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, "Trump Signs Executive Order Prioritizing Faith-Based Participation in Foster Care," Catholic News Agency, November 15, 2025.
- Naomi Schaefer Riley, "The Biden Administration Crossed a Line in Its Rule on Gender Health Care and Foster Children," American Enterprise Institute, 2024.
- "Massachusetts Amends Policy Excluding Christian Foster Parents," Decision Magazine/Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 2025.
- Bipartisan Policy Center/Harris Poll, "New BPC/Harris Polling Data on Religion and Child Welfare," December 2025.