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.