Va. High Court Backs Gay Adoptive Parents
By AP from the NYTimes on the Web, April 22, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. -- The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state must provide new birth certificates for children born in Virginia who are adopted by out-of-state gay couples.
A lower court had ruled otherwise because of a state policy that bans joint adoptions by unmarried couples.
''This case is about issuing birth certificates under the provisions of Virginia law,'' the high court wrote in its 5-2 decision.
''It is not about homosexual marriage, nor is it about 'same-sex' relationships, nor is it about adoption policy in Virginia.''
Three couples sued in 2002 after they were unable to get birth certificates from the state of Virginia that substituted their names for the names of their children's birth parents.
The lower court ruled last year that Virginia adoption law did not obligate the Department of Vital Records to issue the new documents.
Adoptions by same-sex couples are prohibited within Virginia.
Lambda Legal, a gay civil rights group that filed a friend-of-the-court brief on the couples' behalf, said the vast majority of states provide accurate birth certificates in such cases, though a few do not.
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