Adoption and Parenting

The Eighth District Court of Appeals in Ohio last week issued a decision rejecting an attempt to use the state's antigay constitutional amendment to prevent a lesbian mother from sharing custody of her children with her former partner.

(Atlanta, GA, June 15, 2009) — The Georgia Supreme Court today agreed with Lambda Legal’s friend-of-the-court brief when it issued a decision that rejected a proposed antigay restriction in a custody arrangement involving a gay father.

(Charleston, WV, June 8, 2009) — The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled Friday that a foster child should be returned to her lesbian foster parents, Kathryn Kutil and Cheryl Hess, reversing an antigay lower court ruling that sought to remove the child on the basis that her placement was not with a “traditional family.” Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief representing several foster care groups.

(Washington, DC, April 23, 2009) — In a letter received today, the Social Security Administration (SSA) reversed its prior determination to deny benefits to the children of a disabled gay father in Lambda Legal’s case representing the family against apparent antigay discrimination by the federal government.

(San Francisco, August 18, 2008) — The California Supreme Court has ruled that a group of doctors cannot use their religion as a legal excuse for violating the civil rights of their former patient — an Oceanside lesbian — to whom they refused an infertility treatment based on their religious views about her sexual orientation.

(New York, March 4, 2009) — In an announcement issued today by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the antigay Arizona-based Adoption Profiles, LLC and Adoption Media, LLC stopped doing business in New York.

The Attorney General's announcement follows a complaint filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of a New York gay couple barred from posting their on-line adoptive-parent profile by the companies in question solely because they are a same-sex couple. Adoption Profiles, LLC and Adoption Media, LLC were violating New York laws prohibiting such discrimination.

(Detroit, MI, February 20, 2009) — The Michigan State Court of Appeals yesterday held that a Michigan family court cannot refuse to hear a child custody case simply because it involves children whose parents are lesbians, ruling that there is no gay exception to Michigan's child custody laws.

(Atlanta, GA February 18, 2009) — Lambda Legal yesterday filed an amicus brief in the Georgia Supreme Court arguing that an antigay restriction in a custody arrangement should not stand.   

(Cleveland, Ohio, January 21, 2009) — In court papers submitted in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, Lambda Legal defended a lesbian mother in her fight to continue to parent her 11- and 8-year-old sons.

(Columbus, OH, January 5, 2009) — The Supreme Court of Ohio last week let stand an appeals court ruling affirming the enforceability of a court-approved child custody agreement in a case involving lesbian mothers.