Adoption Agency To
Apologize
and Pay Damages for
HIV Discrimination
By Michael Booth, NJ
Law Journal, July 11, 2005
A Verona adoption agency that turned
down a same-sex couple's request to adopt on the grounds that one of the
partners is HIV-positive has agreed to apologize publicly and to pay undisclosed
damages.
The agreement settles an Essex County suit, Doe v. Children of the World,
ESX-L-4042-04, charging the agency with violating the state Law Against
Discrimination, which prohibits discrimination based on a person's medical
condition, and various federal antidiscrimination statutes. The case was
in the pretrial discovery stage with Superior Court Judge James Rothschild Jr.
when it settled on June 3.
Children of the World, which is licensed in New Jersey and New York, agreed to
print its apology as an advertisement in The Star-Ledger of Newark and to
implement antidiscrimination policies and training.
This is the first case in the country challenging a private adoption agency's
refusal to provide services to a couple because one of them is HIV-positive,
says the couple's lawyer, Erika Wood, a staff attorney with the Legal Action
Center in New York, who was assisted by the American Bar Association's
Litigation Assistance Partnership Project.
She says the case has important overtones nationally as more HIV-positive
individuals are seeking to adopt. "This case could have an enormous impact
on a broad cross-section of people living with HIV," Wood said in a statement
last week.
"Adoption may be the only safe way for many couples with an HIV-positive partner
to have children," she said. "Their adoption applications should be
evaluated individually to see if they are fit to parent and not rejected
outright based on outdated misconceptions about HIV."
The plaintiffs, identified in the suit as John and James Doe, already have an
adopted child, says Wood. Citing privacy concerns, she declines to release
details about her plaintiffs' ages, the age and sex of their adopted child or
whether the first adoption was handled by Children of the World or how much they
received in compensation.
Jeffrey Wild and Jenny Kramer, both of Roseland's Lowenstein Sandler, served pro
bono as New Jersey counsel.
In a statement last week, Kramer said: "John and James Doe have been
vindicated, and we are optimistic that the result of this lawsuit will not only
resonate deeply within the adoption-agency community, but also effectuate a sea
change regarding the equal treatment of those who are HIV-positive."
The agency's lawyer, Stanley Fishman, of East Hanover's Fishman & Callahan, was
away from his office and could not be reached for comment.
|
