This judge who banned co-parent
June 05, 2002

This judge who banned co-parent adoptions in Michigan.

"...What appears to have happened in Michigan," said National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell, "is that a judge, under tremendous right-wing pressure, has issued an opinion that the (Michigan adoption) statute does not permit second-parent adoption, and he has appeared to instruct other judges in his county that they are no longer permitted to approve them."

The one-page memo, Kendell said, was based on the analysis of an individual who was not familiar to the family law professionals in the state, and gave no legal reasoning. Whether Judge Brown has the authority to pre-empt the legal judgment of the other members of the Washtenaw court, said Kendell, "is an open question."

"Certainly, we want to preserve the right of lesbian and gay couples and their children to have a mechanism, in Michigan and in other states, for protecting their families." Second-parent adoption "is really the only such mechanism," she said.

Kendell also noted that Michigan's adoption law is one of the more expansive in the country. Second-parent adoptions, she said, may not be spelled out in Michigan's statute, but that does not make them illegal. Adoption law, she said, "has always been liberally construed to promote the best interest of a child.."

So people trying to provide a stable and secure environment in which to raise kids are denied that right in a state that for the last seven years has been providing it?

I'd love to read the justification the mentioned analysis: "But... but... they're gaaaayyy...."

Posted by Jody at June 5, 2002 04:47 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://WWW.nakedwriting.COM/mt-tb.cgi/1243

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference This judge who banned co-parent:

» mature natural women from mature natural women
mature natural women [Read More]

Tracked on April 28, 2007 06:07 AM

Comments

Post a comment