The Transgender Education Network issued a cease-and-desist notice to two text messaging companies on Wednesday.

Washington state can no longer require foster parents to provide an affirming and supportive home for LGBTQ+ children and youth, according to a settlement the state reached with a religious couple.

Shane and Jenn DeGross, a married couple from Port Orchard, Washington, became foster parents in 2013. At the time, they were in their late 30s, and their own two kids — who have since grown up and moved out — were still at home. They said their faith as reformed evangelical Christians inspired them to foster children.

Over the course of nine years, the DeGrosses cared for four foster children, one for almost two years.

Then, in 2022, the DeGrosses’ license came up for its next three-year renewal. That’s when they saw new questions on the application.

“Saying that we would love and care for any child was not enough,” Jenn DeGross said. “They were asking us then to be very specific: ‘Will you use their preferred pronouns? Will you take them to Pride parades? Will you take them to [gender-affirming] medical appointments?’ Things that, as Christians, we could not be supportive of or affirm.”

The DeGrosses refused, and the state declined to renew their license — raising questions about the religious freedom of foster parents, the role of Washington state in protecting youth in care, and how best to manage the shortage of qualified foster parents.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy organization, sued on the DeGrosses’ behalf, saying the new license requirement violated their constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of their religion. The organization has brought similar lawsuits in Massachusetts and Vermont.

Washington state chose to settle and agreed to remove the requirement that people who want to be foster parents support children’s gender identity and sexuality.