Several Christian families say that Vermont has kicked them out of the state’s foster care system because of their views on gender and sexuality, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed by Brian and Kaitlyn Wuoti and Michael and Rebecca Gantt, accused the Vermont Department for Children and Families of revoking their foster care licenses because of their Christian beliefs. The suit, first reported on by The Daily Signal, was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont Windham Division.

“Vermont’s foster-care system faces a crisis,” the lawsuit says. “But, with this emergent need, the Department recently decided to exclude all families with traditional religious beliefs about human sexuality from fostering or adopting any child. This ideological campaign puts politics above people and gender ideology over children’s best interests. It is harmful, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”

The suit says that Vermont has violated the families’ First Amendment rights to free speech, free association, and exercise of religion, as well as their Fourteenth Amendment right to due process and equal protection. It asks that the state’s guidance on sexual and gender identity be deemed unconstitutional.

“Although the Wuotis and Gantts have adopted five children between them, the Department has determined they are unfit to foster or adopt any child solely due to their religiously inspired and widely held belief that girls cannot become boys or vice versa,” the suit says.

The department told the families that they must adhere to the state’s position on gender issues “even if the foster parents hold divergent personal opinions or beliefs,” according to the suit. The state asked them whether they would take a child to a Pride parade or use pronouns not aligning with a child’s sex. Both families said no and that their licenses had not been renewed.

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“We were surprised, because they are typically always trying to match children with families as best they can, and so we assumed maybe they would say, ‘Ok, maybe we won’t place an LGBT child with this family,’” Brian Wuoti told The Daily Signal.

According to the suit, caseworkers had previously reported good experiences working with the families. For example, one caseworker referred to the Wuotis in 2022 as “AMAZING” and said she “probably could not hand pick a more wonderful foster family,” according to the suit.

The battle in Vermont comes as the Biden administration has put forth a foster care placement rule that critics say would force foster parents to accept gender ideology and harm religious liberty. The rule has been challenged by congressional Republicans and state attorneys general.

A Florida Jewish family had its weekly game night disrupted last month when a neighbor banged on their door over a parking dispute, identified the husband as Jewish, and threatened to shoot him, according to doorbell video and court records obtained by The Daily Wire.

The neighbor, identified in court documents as Majd Odeh, initially confronted Mark Footerman over the fact that guests were parked on the street outside his house. The video shows Odeh banging on the door, shouting anti-Semitic insults at Footerman, and then threatening to come back with an AR-15 rifle and shoot him. 

“F*** you, f******* dumba** Jew, bro. Fix your sh**,” Majd Odeh states in a video of the May 14 incident. “I’m gonna come back here with my f****** AR, bro.”

Footerman’s wife, guests, and newborn child were at the house in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Footerman threatened to call the police and told Odeh repeatedly to get off of his property, the video shows.

“F*** you, f******* dumba** Jew,” stated Majd Odeh. “I’m gonna come back here with my f****** AR.”

Florida family’s neighbor banged on their door over a parking dispute last month, identified the husband as Jewish, and threatened to shoot him.

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In the video, Majd Oheh referenced an interaction his brother had with the Footerman family from last year that directly had to do with the fact that they were Jewish. 

“I’m nothing like my brother with the Israeli flag,” Majd Odeh added. “I don’t give a sh** with Israel or if you support Palestine. I don’t give two f****s.”

That interaction happened on December 6 of last year, when Footerman and his then-pregnant wife had a confrontation with Majd Odeh’s brother, Noor Odeh, who shouted and called him a Nazi from his car before waving a Palestinian keffiyeh with an apparent Palestinian flag out the window, according to a video.

That incident is corroborated in an email to his Home Owners Association, in which Footerman said he believed the incident happened because of a flag that he hung outside for Hannukah that resembles the Israeli flag.

The Hannukah-themed flag hung outside the Footman residence that resembles the Israeli flag.

“Noor Odeh, pulled over in front of our house, took pictures of us, rolled down his window and began to scream at us ‘you both are Nazis, you both are murderers, f*** you and your kids,” Footerman wrote in the email. “Later that night while walking our dogs, Noor shouted at us ‘I have my eyes on you, you f****** Jews. Hitler should have finished the Job.”

In the email, Footerman, a U.S. Army Veteran and former congressional staffer, says he filed a report with the Pasco County Sheriff and that the FBI was investigating the incident. In the days after his complaint, anti-Semitic graffiti, including the words “F All Jews” and “Hitler,” was painted onto the sidewalk outside the Footerman’s house.

Temporary restraining order requests reviewed by The Daily Wire were both initially denied by a county judge who set a June 14 date for a hearing. A temporary restraining order against Noor Odeh, however, was approved when Footerman reported that he believed he captured video evidence of him near his property as anti-Semitic graffiti appeared.

“Early Sunday morning, May 19th, 2024, between 12:10 and 1:09 AM based on our cameras showing Noor walking past our house, the walking path next to our house was defaced with ‘F All Jews,’ ‘Hitler,’ and two different stamps of ‘PLO,’” Footerman wrote in an email to the HOA.

Graffiti outside the Footerman house.

Mustafa Ameen, a lawyer at a law firm representing Noor and Majd Odeh, told The Daily Wire that the incidents caught on camera depict “two neighbors making derogatory comments.”

“This is literally both sides acting like children and bringing this conflict of Israel and Palestine into a neighborhood dispute for no reason,” Ameen said. He accused Footerman of making “threats the other way,” but declined to give specifics.

“There are statements that he is making towards our client that are going to come up in the court proceedings that make him look just as bad, if not worse,” Ameen added. 

Ameen denies that the video clearly depicts Noor Odeh or that it is evidence he was the vandal responsible for the anti-Semitic graffiti. 

Footerman told The Daily Wire he denies ever having made threats or offensive comments towards either of the Odeh brothers.

The HOA initially asked the Footermans to remove the flag after uproar from other neighbors, claiming that religious and holiday flags were prohibited, despite guidelines permitting seasonal flags.

In the email, Footerman described the May 14 incident as unwarranted and said everything he was doing was within HOA guidelines.

“When we assured him that none of the cars would be here overnight and that our friends parked in conjunction with the HOA guidelines on visitor parking, Majd went into an anti-Jewish tirade that culminated in him refusing to leave our property and threatening us four times,” Footerman wrote. “We immediately called 911.”

The HOA made several attempts to remove the graffiti burned into the sidewalk in front of the home of the family which moved to the community two years ago before painting over it.

According to Footerman’s email, the FBI opened up a second investigation regarding the graffiti. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.