An Arkansas court has struck down a state regulation that banned lesbian and gay people, and anyone living in a household with a gay adult, from being foster parents in that state. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought the lawsuit against the state on behalf of three prospective foster parents.
In his findings, Circuit Court Judge Timothy Fox flatly rejected many of the claims the state had made about gay and lesbian people's suitability as parents. In his decision, Fox wrote: "(Psychology pioneer) Jerome Bruner has suggested that one of the reasons people believe in our system of justice may be as simple as 'our faith that confrontation is a good way to get to the bottom of things.' The 'confrontation' in this case has presented us all with an excellent opportunity to replace ignorance with knowledge and to make an informed decision based on information as opposed to assumption." Judge Fox's findings of fact concluded that being raised by gay parents doesn't increase the risk of psychological, behavioral, or academic problems for children; that children of lesbian and gay parents are just as well adjusted as children of straight parents; that there is no factual basis for saying that heterosexual parents might be better able to guide children through adolescence than gay parents; that there are no reasons that health, safety, or welfare of a foster child might be negatively impacted by living in a foster home where there is a gay person present; and that the blanket exclusion can hurt children by excluding a pool of effective foster parents.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has rendered an historic decision, ruling that when female partners in that state agree to conceive a child through donor insemination, both partners are the legal parents. The ruling was unanimous. According to the Indianapolis Star, the court also chided state lawmakers for being slow to deal with advances in reproductive technology, and urged the legislature to address the "current social reality" of families who utilize such advances.
"No (legitimate) reason exists to provide the children born to lesbian parents through the use of reproductive technology with less security and protection than that given to children born to heterosexual parents through artificial insemination," Judge Ezra H. Friedlander wrote in the ruling. "Our paramount concern should be with the effect of our laws on the reality of children's lives." The appeals court overturned the ruling of circuit court, which found that Dawn King had no legal standing with the girl born to her former partner, Stephanie Benham, because King was not a biological parent. The child is now five years old.
OklahomaA federal judge has given the green light to a lawsuit that seeks to strike down Oklahoma's anti-gay adoption law passed in 2004. U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron found that the lawsuit filed against Oklahoma's Governor Brad Henry and Attorney General Drew Edmondson can proceed. The state has asked the court to dismiss the case.
"The judge clearly sees how dangerous this law is for families in Oklahoma. The legislature singled out these families and tried to strip them of all legal protections, and that's unconstitutional," said Brian Chase, staff attorney in Lambda Legal's South Central Regional Office, who brought the case on behalf of same-sex couples who adopted children while living in other states and later moved to Oklahoma or who want to visit the state with their adoptive children. The drastic law, passed hastily in the last legislative session, could be interpreted to nullify legal adoptions of children by same-sex couples from other states when they are in Oklahoma.
Family Pride Coalition members Anne Magro and Heather Finstuen, together 13 years, are parents to six-year-old twin girls born to Anne in New Jersey and adopted through a second-parent adoption by Heather while living in New Jersey. The family now lives in Oklahoma, where this new law endangers the legal relationship established lawfully by a New Jersey court between Heather and her girls. The law, says that Oklahoma, "shall not recognize an adoption by more than one individual of the same sex from any other state or foreign jurisdiction." Also plaintiffs on the case are Ed Swaya and Greg Hampel, who live in Washington State and adopted their two-year-old daughter Vivian from a woman in Oklahoma. Swaya and Hampel are now hesitant to bring Vivian to Oklahoma to visit her birth mother and see the state where she was born.
A Texas appeals court has upheld the adoption granted to a Galveston lesbian of her former partner's biological daughter. The biological mother, Julie Anne Hobbs, had appealed a district judge's ruling that her former partner, Janet Kathleen Van Stavern had equal parenting rights. Hobbs became pregnant through insemination with a known donor, who voluntarily terminated his parental rights. When the child was three years old, Van Stavern legally adopted her.
The eight-year relationship between Hobbs and Van Stavern ended in March 2004, and Hobbs went to court to have the adoption overturned, using the argument that Texas does not permit co-parenting by same-sex couples. Since their breakup, Van Stavern has continued to provide $400 a month in child support. Attorneys for Hobbs said they would consider appealing the decision to the Texas Supreme Court.
A Vermont judge has ruled for the first time that both members of a same-sex civil union are the legal parents of a child born to one of them. The decision was handed down by Judge William Cohen, and continues the dispute which has elicited different rulings in different states. The ruling states that Janet Miller-Jenkins is a legal parent to two-year-old Isabella, who was born through insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins. At the time of her birth, the two women were joined in a Vermont civil union.
The two women were living in Virginia when they entered into a civil union in Vermont. They returned to their lives in Virginia, and began planning to have a child. In 2002, their daughter was born and the family moved to Vermont. After the women broke up, they dissolved their civil union in Rutland Family Court, and Janet Miller-Jenkins was awarded temporary visitation rights. Lisa Miller-Jenkins, 35, then moved back to Virginia, a state that does not recognize civil unions. She sued in Virginia for full custody and a judge granted her request. Janet Miller-Jenkins, 39, opposed the decision, arguing that a Vermont judge has already given her temporary visitation rights.
In Cohen's most recent ruling, he awarded Janet Miller-Jenkins visitation rights as a non-custodial parent. Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Virginia and Equality Virginia are appealing the case, seeking to enforce the court order that Janet Miller-Jenkins must have regular visitation with her daughter and to overturn the Virginia ruling that named Lisa Miller-Jenkins as the child's sole parent.