Exodus: Live Out Loud

Gay group fights for right to adopt

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krmiami/20041120/lo_krmiami/gaygroupfightsforrighttoadopt

Sat Nov 20, 3:52 AM ET

BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES, [email protected]

The Coalition for Fair Adoption announced its formation Friday and said members will make a coordinated effort to repeal Florida's ban against adoption by gays -- the only such law in the country.

"In the end, it is the thousands of children languishing in our foster care system who are hurt the most," Stratton Pollitzer, the group's South Florida director, said on the steps of the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. "We are asking that people take an honest, unbiased look at the research on gay and lesbian parenting and on this adoption ban. The evidence is overwhelming: Sexual orientation plays no role whatsoever in a person's ability to be a good parent."

Same-Sex Couples' Adoption Case Invites Judicial Activism

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/152004d.asp

By Rusty Pugh
November 15, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Christian lawyer who feels it is just common sense to prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children is defending against a challenge to an Oklahoma law dealing with that very issue.

An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund has filed a motion to intervene in federal court on behalf of an Oklahoma lawmaker and a pro-family group. ADF's clients in this case are seeking to defend an Oklahoma law that does not allow same-sex couples to adopt.

Three same-sex couples have filed suit contesting the state law. However, ADF-member Brent Olsson of the Oklahoma City law firm Huckaby, Fleming, Greenwood and Olsson, believes the State has the best interests of the children in mind. "I think the bulk of sociological science will indicate that children are best raised where you have a father figure and a mother figure," he says, "and that is the common sense of Oklahoma's approach."

Dangers of Same-Sex Couples Adopting Children (Part 2)

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=61500

Dale O'Leary on the Stress for Kids

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, NOV. 5, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Adopted children of same-sex parents face the deprivation of either a mother or father and the strain of living in an unstable and unnatural situation, according to a researcher in the field.

Dale O'Leary, a writer and researcher for the Catholic Medical Association , shared with ZENIT how same-sex parents give their children a second-class upbringing by exacerbating normal problems that adopted kids experience.

Part 1 of this interview appeared Thursday.

Q: What's the difference between a child being adopted by a same-sex couple and by a heterosexual couple?

O'Leary: If children adopted by married couples ask, "Why was I given up for adoption?" what will the children who are given to same-sex couples ask? Will they not wonder why their mother would give them over to a permanently and purposefully mother-less or father-less family?
And how does adoption by a same-sex couple—which gay activists admit can expose the child to social stress—protect a child from the stigma of being raised by a single mother?

Dangers of Same-Sex Couples Adopting Children (Part 1)

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=61437

Dale O'Leary on the Risks

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, NOV. 4, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Despite the large number of securely married people waiting to adopt children, same-sex couples are often regarded as desirable adoptive parents with equal qualifications.

So says Dale O'Leary, a writer and researcher for the Catholic Medical Association.

She shared with ZENIT how adoption agencies have disregarded evidence that persons with same-sex attractions are far more likely to suffer from psychological disorders than the general public, and how those risk factors can negatively affect children.

Part 2 of this interview will appear Friday.

Q: What is the growth trend of children being adopted by same-sex couples or individuals with same-sex attractions?

O'Leary: I do not have any research showing this, but the anecdotal evidence suggests a dramatic increase in such adoptions.

Recently, I spoke with a woman who has adopted a number of special needs children and is extremely active in the adoption movement. She said that she has observed a dramatic increase in adoptions by same-sex couples.

She believes that the social workers in the adoption field are disproportionately homosexual themselves or are extremely sympathetic to homosexual adoptions and are directing children to same-sex couples, when there are married heterosexual couples available. She is extremely concerned about this trend.

ACLU Seeks to Challenge Gay Adoption Ban

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041001/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_gay_adoption_1

Fri Oct 1, 4:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court on Friday to hear its challenge to Florida's ban on adoptions by gays.

In a 40-page filing, the ACLU argued the nation's only such blanket prohibition violates the Constitution's equal protection clause because it singles out one class of people, homosexuals. Children also are disadvantaged because they are deprived of caring parents, it states.

The Supreme Court should "make it clear once and for all that states may not pass laws to express their disapproval of gay people and particularly may not do that on the backs of society's least fortunate," according to the brief.

In July, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused in a 6-6 vote to hear the challenge after a three-judge panel ruled against four gay men, foster parents seeking to adopt children in their care. The panel had ruled the question should be decided in the legislature.

Spanish government to allow homosexual couples to adopt

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040930/lf_afp/afplifestyle_spain_gays_040930135343

Thu Sep 30, 9:53 AM ET

MADRID (AFP) - The right by homosexual couples to adopt children will reportedly be added to draft legislation legalizing gay marriages to be adopted Friday by Spain's Socialist government.

The new law would guarantee married homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual couples as far as divorce, alimony or child support payments, inheritance, citizenship and adoption, the left-leaning daily "El Pais," which said it had obtained a copy of the draft law, reported.

It said homosexual couples, however, would only be allowed to adopt Spanish children to avoid any legal wrangles with other countries.

Attorney general says Michigan doesn't recognize same-sex marriages

http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0409/17/g07-276448.htm

Friday, September 17, 2004

Gay adoption limited

By David Eggert / Associated Press

LANSING — An attorney general’s legal opinion that same-sex couples married in Massachusetts cannot adopt a child together in Michigan has angered gay rights advocates and others who said Wednesday it disregards children’s best interests.

The opinion, written by Attorney General Mike Cox, said a same-sex marriage performed in another state is invalid in Michigan and therefore precludes that couple from obtaining a joint adoption here.

“It’s an anti-family opinion,” said Beverly Davidson, president of the Coalition for Adoption Rights Equality, which supports same-sex adoptions. “There are a number of children in our state who need permanent homes. Limiting who can adopt them is a disservice.”

While the Republican attorney general’s opinion specifically addressed whether the state can recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts and whether those couples can adopt children in Michigan, critics worry that it further cripples gays’ rights and their ability to adopt.

Gay couples file federal lawsuit to overturn adoption law in Okla.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-09-15-gay-adoption_x.htm

Posted 9/15/2004 10:36 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Three homosexual couples filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn a law that prohibits Oklahoma from recognizing adoptions by same-sex couples from other states and countries.
The lawsuit alleges the measure, which is an amendment to the Oklahoma Adoption Code, "appears to sever legal ties between parents and their children whenever families led by same-gender couples enter the state of Oklahoma."

Gov. Brad Henry signed the law in May. It was drafted by 17 state lawmakers after Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued an opinion in April requiring the state to recognize all adoptions, regardless of the gender of parents.

A gay couple from Washington state, Ed Swaya and Greg Hampel, sought the opinion when they asked for a birth certificate listing both of them as their daughter's parents. The state Health Department had initially refused to list Swaya because he was not the birth mother.

Same-Sex Parent's Battle for Custody: another Example of Fiascos Waiting in the Wings

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/sep/04091006.html

Friday September 10, 2004

WINCHESTER, Virginia, September 10, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two women who entered into a same-sex civil union in Vermont in 2000 have been battling for custody of a daughter conceived through artificial insemination. A Vermont court has ruled that the girl's mother, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, residing now in Winchester, Virginia, to be in contempt of court, for denying her same-sex partner Janet Miller-Jenkins access to the two year-old toddler, Isabella.

Custody of the child has yet to be determined, according to a Washington Post report. A Virginia judge ruled last month that same-sex civil unions in Vermont do not bestow parental rights. Vermont allowed same-sex unions in 2000, while Virginia enacted a statute last year that makes such unions void. Virginia Judge John Prosser refused Janet Miller-Jenkins' request for equal custody, giving full custody instead to the child's biological mother, who is a Virginia resident.

Rutland, Vermont, Family Court Judge William D. Cohen ruled, however, that since Lisa had brought the original court action in Vermont, "The judicial system as a whole simply cannot allow parties to try to take advantage of legal and cultural differences which may make one state favor the position of a particular party over another."

Two women, a man, and their baby

http://www.canada.com/news/story.html?id=0fe898b3-5550-4295-b6ec-3133a98a06a1

NEWS STORY

Court hears lesbian couple's attempt to prevent sperm donor from gaining parental status

ALLISON HANES
The Gazette

September 13, 2004

There's no doubt the Montreal man fathered the girl who celebrated her first birthday in July - but should he get to be her daddy?

That's the emotionally and legally loaded question Quebec Superior Court will grapple with this week.

The toddler was born after the man donated sperm to an old flame who was starting a family with her lesbian partner.

A hearing starts today to decide whether the man should get to have his name inscribed on the girl's birth certificate and be the proud papa in her life.

He claims he always expected to be more than a genetic donor.