Just when I was starting to get all happy about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal comes a court ruling that really pisses me off. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a second-parent adoption by state Sen. Julia Boseman of her ex-partner Melissa Jarrell’s son was invalid. The ruling could jeopardize other second-parent adoptions in the state, which have been granted in at least two counties, according to the Associated Press (via Star News Online).
The judge granting the adoption waived the state requirement that a parent must give up her parental rights before another can adopt her child. That’s how second-parent adoptions are supposed to work, and do, in other jurisdictions. The legal parent does not give up her rights when the second parent adopts the child. Presto! Two legal parents.
But when Boseman and Jarrell split up, Jarrell claimed that state law prevents second-parent adoptions when one person is the biological parent.
The only small bit of good news is that the court upheld a lower court ruling allowing Boseman and Jarrell to share custody of the child, saying it would be in his best interest.
Thanks to Pam Spaulding for the tip, and for putting the story into the context of the politics in her home state.