South Carolina

The couple was turned away by a government-funded foster care agency because they, as a lesbian couple, did not meet the agency’s religious criteria, which excludes prospective foster parents who are not evangelical Protestant Christian or who are same-sex couples of any faith.

The law singled out LGBTQ students for negative treatment and did not impose any comparable restriction on health education about heterosexual people.

Lambda Legal, the ACLU, ACLU of South Carolina, and South Carolina Equality Coalition are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the state of South Carolina on behalf of a married lesbian couple, Eden Rogers and Brandy Welch, who were turned away by a government-funded foster care agency for failing to meet the agency’s religious criteria, which exclude prospective foster parents who are not evangelical Protestant Christian or who are same-sex couples of any faith.