In a harshly worded opinion, the Kentucky Court of Appeals has barred judges from allowing lesbians to adopt as though they are a stepparent.
-- From "Appeals court rejects adoption by lesbian couple" by Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier-Journal 9/16/08
Ruling 3-0 in a Jefferson County case, the court said that stepparent adoptions are allowed only when the stepmother or father is married to the biological parent, and marriages between gays are forbidden by both statute and Kentucky's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
"It is not this or any court's role to judge whether the legislature's prohibition of same-sex marriage ... is morally defensible or socially enlightened," Judge Glenn Acree of Lexington wrote for the court in the decision that criticized Garber and the lawyers involved.
"Nor is it this or any court's role ... to craft any means by which the legal consequences of such a prohibition may be negated or avoided."
. . . the court said "stepparent-like adoption" does not exist under the laws of Kentucky. "We wish to make this point perfectly clear."
The ruling was condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says that children of same-sex couples deserve the protection of two parents just like any other child.
Ten states now recognize so called "stepparent-like adoptions," according to the ACLU, including most recently Colorado, which last year enacted a law allowing same-sex couples, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives, to jointly adopt children.
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