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Maine
High Court OKs
Same-Sex
Couple Adoptions
by
365Gay.com from the Web, August 30, 2007
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Portland, Maine -- Maine’s
highest court, the Law Court, Thursday issued a ruling allowing a lesbian couple
to jointly adopt two siblings currently in foster care.
The unanimous ruling opens the door in Maine for other co-parent adoptions by
same-sex couples.
The case began in 2001 when children were removed from their home after their
biological parents were no longer able to care for them.
The children were placed with Ann Courtney, an attorney, and Marilyn Kirby, a
counselor.
The children, identified in court documents only as M who is now 10 and R who is
six, had multiple emotional, learning, and developmental problems.
The couple applied to adopt M and R in 2002, and filed adoption petitions in
Cumberland County Probate Court in May 2006.
The judge denied their petition, interpreting current Maine adoption law to
allow only one unmarried person or a married couple to adopt.
While either of the women could have adopted the children the couple decided
they wanted the children to be adopted jointly and appealed.
The appeal reached the Law Court last September and was officially considered in
February 2007.
The court issued its ruling on Thursday.
“A joint adoption assures that in the event of either adoptive parent’s death,
the children’s continued relationship with the surviving parent is fixed and
certain,” the Court said in its written decision.
“A joint adoption also enables the children to be eligible for a variety of
public and private benefits… Most importantly, a joint adoption affords the
adopted children the love, nurturing, and support of not one, but two parents."
Their petition was supported by professional organizations including the
American Psychological Association, the Child Welfare League of America, and the
Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Attorney General Steven Rowe also filed a friend of the court brief, arguing
that prohibiting this adoption would be counter to the letter and purposes of
Maine’s Adoption Act, which seeks to protect the best interest of each adoptive
child.
“We’re ecstatic,” said Courtney. “We love these kids, and their well-being
means everything to us. Our daughter and son can now know that we are a
family, and we’ll always be a family.”
Attorney Mary Bonauto of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, who represented
the couple, said in a statement: “This decision is in the best interest of
the children, who have flourished under Ann and Marilyn’s care. The court
wisely listened to the experts who knew this family well –- everyone from the
state’s adoption workers to the children’s guardian to the social worker who
completed the home study.”
Maine currently has 2,286 children in foster care, according to the Central
Office Adoption Manager at the Department of Health and Human Services. At least
530 of those children have a goal of adoption.
Co-adoptions are expressly permitted in a dozen other states, including the New
England states of Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
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