Posted on 08/05/2003 11:09:31 PM PDT by kattracks
(AP) — Amid renewed debate over whether gay men and women should be allowed to marry, the nation's largest lawyers' group is considering endorsement of the related right of homosexual couples to adopt children.
The American Bar Association is expected to vote on the issue at its meeting beginning Thursday in San Francisco. Approval would put the 408,000-lawyer group on record in support of laws that allow two unmarried people of any sex to adopt as a couple.
If the ABA's governing body should approve the proposal, the organization could lobby statehouses to redraft adoption laws.
Currently, many states allow only one unmarried adult to adopt a child, even if the child will live with two adults who act as parents. The ABA position would apply to gay families and to heterosexual couples who want to adopt but not marry.
"This really is a tremendous benefit to the kid," said Paul Cates, public education director for the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "Say something happens to the adopting parent — they die or something horrible happens. Then the kid is left in this state of limbo" unless the second adult raising the child also is legally a parent.
Peter LaBarbera, senior policy analyst at the Culture and Family Institute, which is affiliated with the conservative lobbying organization Concerned Women for America, said the ABA proposal puts a politically correct gay-rights agenda ahead of the best interests of children.
"I think most people, pretty much from left to right, agree children do best in married households, and certainly do better when they have a mother and a father," he said. "It doesn't make sense to encourage the formation of fatherless or motherless households."
The ABA policy would endorse laws that allow unmarried people to begin the adoption process jointly, or that allow a second, unmarried parent to become a legal parent after the initial adoption is final.
The ABA already is on record supporting the general right of gay people to adopt.
Eight states and the District of Columbia already have laws or statewide court decisions in line with the ABA proposal as it applies to homosexuals, according to statistics compiled by the gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign. Those states — California, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont — guarantee that a second gay parent can petition to join an initial adoptive parent.
Even without such laws, gay couples have adopted children in an additional 19 states, according to Human Rights Campaign. Permission for such adoptions often varies within a state, with some judges more likely to grant the request.
Florida expressly bans adoption by any gay person. Mississippi bans adoption by gay couples, while Utah forbids adoption by any unmarried couple, including gay couples.
Homosexuals cannot formally marry in the United States, although Vermont allows "civil unions" that give gay partners the same legal rights of marriage.
The ABA proposal does not address whether gays should be allowed to marry, a possibility raised by the Supreme Court's June ruling that it is not a crime for gay people to have sex.
Although the court's majority said it was not addressing the question of same-sex marriage, dissenters predicted the ruling will be used to try to try to win legal marriage rights for gays.
The ruling may have caused a backlash that at least temporarily reversed a gradual shift toward more public acceptance of gay rights. A poll taken by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in late June and early July found that opposition to gay legal rights had been declining in recent years. Those who strongly opposed gay marriage had declined from 41 percent in 1996 to 30 percent, and those who supported it had increased from 27 percent to 38 percent.
The ABA proposal was in the works before the high court's ruling, but if approved it could further energize gay rights efforts that have flowed from the ruling.
The Lawrence v. Texas ruling is the basis for several new legal challenges to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars openly gay people from serving in the military. Lawyers expect the ruling also will be used to challenge alleged discrimination against gays in jobs, housing and other realms.
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On the Net:
American Bar Association: http://www.abanet.org
Concerned Women for America: http://www.cwfa.org
Human Rights Campaign: http://www.hrc.org
Lawyers consider gay adoption rights
By BILL RANKIN / Cox News Service
SAN FRANCISCO -- While national debate simmers over the issue of same-sex marriage, the nation's largest legal group today will consider the rights of gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.
In a vote scheduled for today, the American Bar Association's governing body will vote on a resolution that applies to unmarried couples who are either heterosexual or gay. It calls on the 410,000-member lawyer group to support state laws and court rulings that permit joint adoptions and second-parent adoptions by unmarried people.
"Recognizing these relationships is an essential means of protecting the core rights of children," said Washington lawyer Mark Agrast, chairperson of an ABA individual rights committee. "Every child should have a legally recognized relationship to each parent."
The issue is before the lawyer group only weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court decriminalized gay sex. In that ruling, the high court held that homosexuals' "dignity as free persons" barred prosecution of their private sexual conduct.
Atlanta lawyer Paula Frederick, a member of the House of Delegates, said she supports the resolution.
"There are too many unwanted children out there who need loving parents," she said. "I think it's a wonderful thing for children to find two people who'll love them and are willing to adopt them."
An ABA task force report on the issue notes that many same-sex parents try to protect their relationships with their children through legal documents such as wills and guardian agreements. "But they do not create a legally recognized parental relationship, and they are vastly inferior to the security and legal protection that adoption provides for children."
Financial needs
Without adoption, the report noted, a child of one parent cannot claim financial support or inheritance rights from the second parent; is not entitled to Social Security, retirement or workers' compensation benefits from the second parent; and is ineligible for health insurance benefits from the second-parent's employer.
Nationwide, eight states and the District of Columbia have either passed laws or had appellate court rulings allowing a second gay parent to join with an adoptive parent.
On Aug. 4, the California Supreme Court became the latest court to guarantee the rights of gay couples to adopt children. Second-parent adoption, the court said, can secure the benefits of "legally recognized parentage for a child. . .who otherwise must remain a legal stranger."
The next key ruling is expected soon from the federal appeals court in Atlanta, which is considering a challenge to a Florida law banning adoption by any gay person.
The case hinges on whether the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can determine there was a reasonable rationale behind the Florida statute.
Florida inconsistent
In court filings, the state of Florida said it prefers to place children in homes with both mothers and fathers and which are stabilized by long-term marriage.
"In such homes, children have the best chance to develop optimally, due to the vital role dual-gender parenting plays in shaping sexual and gender identity and in providing heterosexual role modeling," the state said.
It is also preferable to place a child in an adoptive home "which minimizes social stigmatization to the extent possible," the state said. "It is reasonably related to these interests to discourage adoption into homosexual environments."
But the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, which represents two gay couples and a lesbian couple in the case, said Florida has allowed couples with drug and alcohol problems or histories of domestic violence to adopt children. Florida judges allow some gay couples to become permanent legal guardians.
"Given the state's frank acknowledgement that lesbians and gay men pose no risk of harm to children, and its willingness to place children with lesbians and gay men permanently, it is impossible to credit the idea that the ban was adopted to promote child welfare," the ACLU said. "The only purpose the ban could possibly serve is the forbidden one: expressing the state's disapproval of lesbians and gay men."
Bill Rankin writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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