Adoption and Parenting

(NEW YORK, June 6, 2002) - The New Jersey premiere of a documentary exploring the lives of families in which the parents are actively anti-gay in spite of having gay children themselves will also serve as a benefit for Lambda Legal, Lambda said Wednesday.

(ATLANTA, Thursday, February 21, 2002) — Lambda Legal is urging a federal appeals court to end Florida’s unconstitutional ban on adoptions by lesbian and gay parents because it disregards the best interests of thousands of children needing good homes and is based solely on anti-gay prejudice.

(NEW YORK, Wednesday January 30, 2002) —Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said a new policy from the American Academy of Pediatrics supporting legal protections for lesbian and gay families is an important landmark.

(LOS ANGELES Wednesday, January 30, 2002) — The California Supreme Court has agreed to review the question of whether second-parent adoptions are allowed in the state, said Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Wednesday. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, the San Diego appellate court opinion that had brought these adoptions into question has been de-published.

(ARLINGTON, VA, Wednesday, August 14, 2002) -- A lesbian Episcopal priest in Northern Virginia will be able to adopt another foster child from the District of Columbia - and Virginia child placement officials will no longer bar such adoptions based on the parents’ sexual orientation - under a lawsuit settlement made public today. As a result of the settlement, lead counsel Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund today filed papers in state court to dismiss the lesbian mother’s lawsuit.

(NEW YORK, Wednesday, January 2, 2002) —The Pennsylvania state Supreme Court has affirmed a ruling that a lesbian mother who raised a child with her former partner may seek visitation despite the biological mother’s objection, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which argued the case, said Wednesday.

(LOS ANGELES, Thursday, November 1, 2001) -- The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that a state doctrine, which has provided protection to unmarried heterosexual partners for years, also protects lesbian and gay families, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Thursday.

A state appellate court in San Diego released a extreme and unprecedented decision yesterday, that could have severe consequences for thousands of adopted children in families throughout California.

(ATLANTA, October 25, 2001) — Mississippi is refusing to issue a birth certificate to a 4-year-old boy, punishing him solely because he has been adopted by a lesbian couple. The refusal means that the child has no legal document to prove his name, the names of his parents, and his date and place of birth.

(NEW YORK, Monday, October 15, 2001) —Two youngsters in Delaware now share two legal fathers thanks to a ruling that allowed a gay man to adopt his partner’s children, said Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represented the father.