(San Francisco, August 5, 2011)—Today, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Protection of Parent-Child Relationships Act (AB 1349). Authored by Assemblymember Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) and sponsored by Equality California and the Association of California Adoption Lawyers (ACAL), the law allows the courts to determine who a child’s parents are in cases where there is both a non-biological parent and a man who has signed a voluntary declaration of paternity. “Parenting is more than just...
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adoption
(San Francisco, August 9, 2011)—Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of leading family law, constitutional law and conflict of laws professors and legal experts asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that Louisiana can discriminate against children born in Louisiana and adopted by unmarried parents in other states by refusing to issue them accurate birth certificates....
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, October 22, 2010)—Today Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced that he would not appeal last month’s ruling by the Third District Court of Appeal striking down Florida’s anti-gay adoption ban as unconstitutional. Florida Governor Charlie Crist and the state’s Department of Children and Families had already announced that they would not appeal the ruling. The ruling will become final after today, and will be...
Court Rules Florida’s Anti-Gay Adoption Law Is Unconstitutional (San Francisco, CA, September 22, 2010)—Today the Third District Court of Appeal in Florida unanimously upheld a 2008 Miami-Dade Circuit Court decision striking down Florida’s anti-gay adoption ban and permitting Martin Gill, a gay man, to adopt two foster children he and his partner have parented for years. Gill is represented by the ACLU of Florida. The plaintiffs presented numerous experts who testified that decades of...
Charisma R. and Kristina S. were in a committed relationship for 6 years. They decided to have children together, and Kristina gave birth to their child in 2003. They started a baby journal and sent out a joint birth announcement. Charisma and Kristina cared for their child together, and Charisma provided the primary care after Kristina returned to work. When their child was only a few months old, Kristina abruptly left their shared home and refused to allow Charisma to have any contact with...
Lara Embry (L.E.) and Kimberly Ryan (K.R.) are a female couple who had two children together in Washington. Each partner gave birth to one child, and each adopted her non-biological child through a second-parent adoption in Washington. The couple moved to Florida, and their relationship ended several years later. They entered into an agreement and successfully shared equal custody and visitation with both children until K.R. broke the agreement. Although the children had been raised together...
Represented by NCLR and the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Michael and Rich Butler, a San Jose couple, filed a lawsuit challenging the discriminatory policies of the for-profit websites Adoption.com and ParentProfiles.com after these businesses refused to post their profile online solely because they are a same-sex couple. The defendants’ websites, Adoption.com and ParentProfiles.com, charge fees for posting profiles of potential adoptive parents. Using the websites,...
B.F. and T.D., a lesbian couple, were in a committed relationship for seven years. When their attempts to get pregnant were unsuccessful, the couple decided to adopt. Because the availability of second parent adoptions is unclear in Kentucky, only T.D. adopted the child. For the next six years, the couple raised their child together. After the couple separated, however, T.D. cut off all contact between B.F. and the child, forcing B.F. to file for visitation. Both the trial court and the...
The ACLU of Virginia sued on behalf of four children adopted by same-sex couples after the Virginia Department of Vital Records refused to issue new birth certificates listing both of the children’s adoptive parents. The children were born in Virginia, but adopted by same-sex couples in the District of Columbia and New York. NCLR assisted Professor Joan Hollinger, one of the nation’s foremost scholars on adoption law, in filing an amicus brief supporting the children’s right...
