Oregon court lets Christian mother resume adoption application without pledging to affirm a child’s LGBTQ identity

A federal district court in Oregon approved an agreement on September 9 requiring state officials to rescind their rejection of Jessica Bates and reinstate her application to adopt a child from state care. Under the stipulated order and judgment , the Oregon Department of Human Services may not require Bates to promise to use a child’s chosen pronouns or other language about sexual orientation and gender identity that conflicts with her Christian beliefs.

The ruling does not automatically certify Bates or place a child with her. It expressly allows the agency to consider each child’s individual needs and an applicant’s willingness to meet them, including needs related to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

Bates is a widowed mother of five from Vale. As LGBTQ Nation reported , she hoped to adopt two siblings under nine. Oregon rejected her in 2022 after she said she would love a child regardless of identity but would not support same-sex relationships or a gender transition, use pronouns inconsistent with sex at birth, or take a child to hormone-treatment appointments.

In July 2025, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled two to one that the requirement, as applied to Bates, likely violated free-speech and religious-exercise rights. The published opinion said Oregon conditioned access to the program on expressing a particular viewpoint. Dissenting Judge Richard Clifton argued that the state was regulating care for children in its custody rather than Bates’s private beliefs and should be able to put their interests first. The court declined en banc rehearing in February 2026.

Oregon later amended its administrative rules and removed the general requirement that applicants support a foster child’s possible LGBTQ identity. Department spokesperson Jake Sunderland told the Oregon Capital Chronicle that officials will still seek homes able to provide LGBTQ children with safety and support through individualized placement decisions.

Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal group representing Bates, called the settlement a protection of constitutional rights and a rejection of ideological screening. LGBTQ group Basic Rights Oregon said the outcome permits discrimination against vulnerable children and weakens safeguards for safe placements. The Oregon Capital Chronicle reported both positions.

The case therefore ended not with an unconditional “right to adopt,” but with an order barring Oregon from automatically excluding Bates because of her religious beliefs and speech. Certification and any particular placement remain decisions for state officials.

Uránia previously covered another dispute over Oregon’s transgender policies, when the Ninth Circuit allowed the state to continue housing trans women in men’s prisons while considering transfer requests individually.