adoption.com fallout continues
David on Aug 7th 2007
Back in may, we issued a call to action against adoption.com because it refused to post adoption profiles for same sex couples. By mid-June, several families had submitted their personal stories to the adoption website, and our Executive Director, Jennifer Chrisler, penned this letter to the owners.
The court ruled that if adoption.com wants to do business in California, it must allow same-sex couples to post profiles on the site. As a result, the owners of adoption.com, Nathan and Dale Gwilliam, stood up against equality and refused to do business with California. It’s a shocking twist that has left many Californians - LGBTQ and not - very upset. It’s a shame that Californians won’t have access to the many resources that the site offers.
Media coverage of the situation has been picking up steam with articles in Gay News Bits and the Arizona Republic.
A national gay and lesbian advocacy agency has launched a campaign to persuade one of the country’s leading adoption Web sites based in Gilbert to allow people of all sexual orientations looking to adopt to post profiles on the site.
Family Pride, based in Washington, D.C., launched the campaign in late May in response to a settlement reached earlier that same month.
The settlement stems from an anti-discrimination suit filed by a California male couple against Gilbert-based Adoption Profiles LLC, after the company refused to post the couple’s profile on its Web site, www.ParentProfiles .com, for birth parents to see.
Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Pride - which focuses on equal rights for families headed by lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parents - said her organization’s call to action encouraged same-sex couples to send letters and photos of their families to the Gilbert business. At least 50 families, she said, have responded to date.
Attorneys from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who acted as co-counsel for domestic partners Michael and Rich Butler, asserted that the adoption business violated the Butlers’ rights under California anti-discrimination law, which protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, marital status and gender.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-Christian legal organization, defended the company and its owners, Nathan and Dale Gwilliam, who were named in the suit. The Gwilliams’ attorneys held that the Butlers’ rights were not violated because the business operates under Arizona law, which does not prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of marital status or sexual orientation.
The settlement, reached on May 22, prohibits Adoption Profiles from posting profiles of California residents on its Web site “unless the service is made equally available to all California residents qualified to adopt in California.”
Neel Chaterjee, an attorney who represented the Butlers for free, said that the couple were pleased with the settlement because it requires all California residents be treated equally. He added that the settlement did not include a financial payout for the Butlers because they were not seeking money.
Calls to Adoption Profiles representatives and attorneys were not returned.
In response to the settlement, the Alliance Defense Fund announced May 22 that Adoption Profiles “will no longer accept profiles from California residents. . . . Californians are poorer for this attempt to misapply the non-discrimination laws of California to the Internet business of an Arizona company.”
Chrisler of Family Pride said that the company’s decision is upsetting because it bars thousands of parents looking to adopt from using on one of the largest adoption Web sites in the nation.
The decision also has upset some Valley residents who have placed a child up for adoption.
Kym Hager, 34, of Surprise, said she chose a lesbian couple to adopt her daughter 11 years ago and has no regrets. Hager said she is furious that the Web site does not market itself as an adoption business that only accepts heterosexual married couples.
Filed in adoption, children, general |
As an Arizona resident, I’m ashamed that this company is claiming Arizona law as an excuse to discriminate against loving and caring people that are ready, willing and able to be a parent for children that desperately need one.
The war for equality is far from over. It’s only just begun in earnest.
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