A Christian mother and her husband are fighting back after Oregon officials effectively branded them child abusers because they refused to “affirm” their teenage daughter’s transgender identity.
Nicole and David Calaway filed a federal lawsuit on July 15 against their daughter’s former therapist and multiple Oregon Department of Human Services officials, accusing them of violating the couple’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
“It has destroyed our lives,” Nicole told The Daily Signal.
According to the lawsuit, Child Protective Services removed Nicole’s then-15-year-old daughter, identified as K.A., from the Calaways’ home on July 18, 2024.
The seizure occurred one day after Nicole and her daughter reportedly terminated the services of therapist Jennifer Forster. Court documents allege that Forster then contacted the child-abuse hotline after being encouraged by ODHS caseworker Rachel Woods.
Forster allegedly told authorities that Nicole had appeared “aggressive and angry” and intended to leave her daughter without mental-health support.
The Calaways contend those statements were false and created a “fabricated appearance of urgency” that Oregon officials used to remove K.A. from their home.
In September 2024, ODHS informed the couple that they were considered responsible for causing their daughter “mental injury.”
“Your adverse reactions to [K.A.] expressing their gender identity have caused serious harm to [K.A.’s] psychological functioning,” Woods allegedly wrote.
In other words, Oregon bureaucrats treated Christian parents’ refusal to embrace radical gender ideology as child abuse.
Nicole said she had shown her daughter videos challenging transgender ideology, including testimony from individuals who regretted transitioning.
The mother said she wanted her daughter to hear the other side before making decisions that could permanently alter her body.
“I wanted her to make an informed decision,” Nicole said. “I did not want her to ruin her body. I still do not want her to ruin her body.”
The Calaways’ Christian convictions hold that biological sex cannot be changed and that so-called “gender-affirming care,” including social transition, can be harmful to vulnerable children.
According to the lawsuit, the state concluded that Nicole’s decision to show those videos had damaged her daughter’s psychological functioning.
“When did the truth become mental injury?” David asked.
The lawsuit states that ODHS previously screened out one abuse referral against the Calaways and determined that a second allegation was unfounded in 2023.
K.A.’s biological father, Keith Allison, reportedly sought custody and filed two motions claiming the teenager faced immediate danger inside the Calaway home. A court denied both motions in 2024.
“On essentially the same facts later used to remove K.A., a neutral court had twice declined to find immediate danger, and ODHS had already once found the mental-injury allegation unfounded,” the lawsuit states.
Oregon voluntarily withdrew its dependency petition in November 2024, abandoning the proceeding used to remove the teenager from the home.
Despite withdrawing the underlying petition, Oregon reportedly refused to remove the administrative child-abuse findings from Nicole and David’s records.
Nicole remains estranged from both of her daughters, who now claim transgender identities, and she says Oregon has prohibited her from contacting K.A.
The couple moved to Florida in July 2025, but the Oregon abuse findings followed them across state lines.
Nicole said the finding prevents her from volunteering with children at church and could threaten professional licenses and employment opportunities.
But the nightmare became even worse.
Months after the family moved out of Oregon, ODHS issued a separate administrative finding alleging that David exhibited “a pattern of inappropriate grooming behaviors,” including allegedly making inappropriate sexual comments while K.A. was in his care, according to Daily Signal.
David vehemently denies the allegations.
The state reportedly reached the finding in December 2025 but did not notify David until May 12, 2026, approximately five months later.
David said he was not given a meaningful opportunity to appeal.
The notice warned that the finding could affect his ability to volunteer, obtain or retain a professional license, or hold certain jobs.
“If I was being accused of sexual abuse, wouldn’t there be a police record?” David told Daily Signal. “Wouldn’t I be arrested? Wouldn’t I be in jail?”
No related criminal charge or arrest was identified in the reporting.
“It’s like we’re guilty until proven innocent,” Nicole said.
The couple’s lawsuit, Calaway et al. v. Forster, LPC et al., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon under the federal Civil Rights Act. The named defendants include Forster, Woods, Tyler Wampler, McKenna Hoole, Lena Bolling, Liesl Wendt, and unidentified defendants.
The Calaways allege that the defendants:
- Interfered with Nicole’s constitutional right to direct her daughter’s care and upbringing.
- Retaliated against the couple for constitutionally protected speech.
- Burdened their exercise of their Christian faith.
- Denied them due process before branding them child abusers.
- Directed school officials to deny Nicole access to her daughter’s educational records despite the absence of a court order terminating her parental rights.
The couple is seeking at least $5 million in compensatory and general damages, additional economic and punitive damages, attorney fees, and an injunction clearing their names from Oregon’s abuse registries.
Oregon has targeted Christian parents before. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Oregon denied Christian mother Jessica Bates’ application to adopt children from foster care after she refused to promise to endorse a hypothetical child’s transgender identity.
Oregon demanded that prospective parents agree to use preferred pronouns, support gender expression, attend LGBT-affirming events, and potentially facilitate access to transgender medical interventions.
Bates refused to violate her Christian faith.
In July 2025, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Oregon’s policy likely violated Bates’ First Amendment rights and ordered a lower court to block ODHS from using the rule to disqualify her.
The court found that Oregon’s blanket policy was not narrowly tailored and that less restrictive alternatives were available. The Ninth Circuit denied rehearing the case en banc in February 2026.
Now, the Calaway lawsuit alleges that the same Oregon agency went even further, removing a biological child from her Christian mother, destroying the family, placing permanent abuse findings on both parents’ records, and accusing the father of “grooming” without a corresponding criminal prosecution.
This is where government-enforced gender ideology leads: Parents who refuse to repeat the state’s preferred political doctrine risk being investigated, separated from their children, and branded child abusers by unelected bureaucrats.
The post Christian Parents Sue Oregon After State Brands Them “Child Abusers” for Refusing to “Affirm” Daughter’s Transgender Identity appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.