Adoption and Parenting

(New Orleans, December 23, 2008) — In a major victory for same-sex parents nationwide, a U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana has ordered the state registrar to honor the New York adoption of a baby boy by a same-sex couple, saying her continued failure to do so violated the U.S. Constitution.

(New York, July 1, 2008) — Lambda Legal is filing a discrimination complaint with the New York Attorney General's office on behalf of a gay couple in New York barred from posting their online adoptive-parent profile by Arizona-based Adoption Profiles, LLC and Adoption Media, LLC solely because they are a same-sex couple — violating New York antidiscrimination laws.

(Franklin County, OH, June 16, 2008) — The Tenth District Ohio Appeals Court ruled, on June 10, 2008, that lesbian mother Denise Fairchild should never have been permitted to attack the enforceability of a shared custody agreement with her former partner Therese Leach.

Fairchild argued that Article XV, Section 11 of the Ohio Constitution, an anti-gay amendment concerning marriage that passed as a ballot initiative in November 2004, invalidated the court-approved agreement she originally sought with Leach and entered into in 2001.

(Virginia, June 6, 2008) — Today, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed a prior ruling by the Virginia Court of Appeals that said that the state must honor the Vermont Supreme Court's order of visitation between Janet Jenkins and her daughter.

"We are thrilled for Janet — at the end of the day this case is about being a mother to her daughter," said Greg Nevins, Senior Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal. "The Virginia Supreme Court's decision upheld the law and we are extremely pleased."

(Los Angeles, May 1, 2008) — The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday, May 28, 2008 in the case of an Oceanside lesbian whose doctors at North Coast Women's Care Medical Group denied her fertility treatments based on their religious beliefs.

(San Francisco, May 28, 2008) — The California Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in the case of an Oceanside lesbian, Guadalupe "Lupita" Benítez, whose doctors denied her a standard infertility treatment based on their religious beliefs about gay people.

 

(Richmond, Virginia, April 17, 2008) — At oral arguments today at the Supreme Court of Virginia, Arent Fox LLP, Lambda Legal, and ACLU-VA, will defend a lesbian mother and her relationship with her daughter against her ex-partner who claims that she is the sole parent after the dissolution of the couple's civil union.

(Richmond, VA, May 8, 2007) —Today, the Virginia Supreme Court rejected an appeal in a highly watched lesbian parenting dispute. In November of last year, the Virginia Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the Commonwealth of Virginia has no say in a custody dispute that began in Vermont between Janet Jenkins and her former partner Lisa Miller.

(ATLANTA, Friday, May 3, 2002) - An Arlington County Circuit Court judge today wasted no time in rejecting an attempt by the Virginia Attorney General’s office to end a lawsuit filed by a lesbian mother who wants to adopt a foster child. Arlington resident Linda Kaufman is suing the Commonwealth of Virginia for refusing to allow her to adopt a District of Columbia foster child because Kaufman is a lesbian. Today, Judge Joanne Alper rejected Virginia’s argument that Kaufman’s case should be dismissed because she has not formally submitted an application to adopt a child.