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Kentucky court nixes second-parent adoption
Filed under: Adoption, Divorce & Custody, Gay Parenting
So say you're in love with someone. Totally and completely. And not just them, but their kids too. So you want to get married and legally adopt the kids. But there's a problem. Perhaps you're disabled and, if you marry, you'll lose your disability benefits. Or maybe you just don't go for the whole marriage thing. Or maybe you can't get married because the state is more concerned with sex than love and you don't fit their definition of what's acceptable. So you decide to do a "second-parent" adoption where you adopt the kids without terminating the biological parent's rights.
Only, in Kentucky, you can't do that anymore. It seems a couple did that there, but when negotiations over visitation and other issues -- the adoption came after the couple split up -- broke down, the biological mother went to court saying that the adoption should never have happened in the first place. Sadly, the court of appeals agreed in principle, and now the state does not allow adoption unless the adoptive parent is married to the biological parent or the biological parent's rights are terminated.
The net effect of this? Same-sex couples can no longer adopt each other's children because they cannot marry. And the irony of it all -- because the issues were raised more than a year after it took place, the court ruled that the adoption in question is still valid. Hopefully, in time, the court will see the error of its ways and let any loving, caring, able parent adopt, regardless of marital or gender status.
Only, in Kentucky, you can't do that anymore. It seems a couple did that there, but when negotiations over visitation and other issues -- the adoption came after the couple split up -- broke down, the biological mother went to court saying that the adoption should never have happened in the first place. Sadly, the court of appeals agreed in principle, and now the state does not allow adoption unless the adoptive parent is married to the biological parent or the biological parent's rights are terminated.
The net effect of this? Same-sex couples can no longer adopt each other's children because they cannot marry. And the irony of it all -- because the issues were raised more than a year after it took place, the court ruled that the adoption in question is still valid. Hopefully, in time, the court will see the error of its ways and let any loving, caring, able parent adopt, regardless of marital or gender status.
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