The ACLU has filed a new federal case in North Carolina, seeking to overturn the state’s ban on second-parent adoption. A win would mean that kids being raised by same-sex couples could have “legally protected relationships with both of the parents who are raising them.” Because the case was brought under the federal constitution, a win could have an impact on other states as well.
Second-parent adoption, for those who don’t know, allows a parent to adopt her partner’s biological or legally adopted child(ren), without the first parent losing parental rights. North Carolina currently does not allow second-parent adoptions—nor do Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Utah, and Wisconsin. Twenty states clearly permit them; but the remainder are unclear or vary among local jurisdictions. (Here’s a map from the Movement Advancement Project.)
The lack of second-parent adoptions has a direct, negative impact on families, as is clear from videos below of two of the six plaintiff couples in the case—especially the first one, which tells a horrifying tale of one mom not being able to stay the night in the hospital with their son.
Kudos to these families not only for fighting for our rights, but for being willing to cope with the disturbances to their lives that such a case will inevitably produce.
