Gay Adoption in the Bayou

by Michael Jones · 2008-12-24 13:29:00 UTC
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gay AdoptionHere's a nice news story for this Christmas Eve.  A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled that the state registrar must recognize the adoption of a child by a same-sex couple. The child, a Louisiana-born baby boy who was born in 2006, was taken in by Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, a gay couple from New York.  New York granted the couple an adoption decree, but Louisiana (where the child's birth certificate hails from) did not recognize the adoption.  Louisiana is one of the few states that bans unmarried couples from adopting, and since LGBT couples cannot get married in Louisiana, LGBT couples cannot legally adopt in Louisiana.

But that changed on Tuesday, when U.S. District Court Judge Jay Zainey ordered the state of Louisiana to recognize both same-sex parents on the baby boy's birth certificate.

Lambda Legal, which brought forward the case, called the decision a landmark victory for same-sex parents. But Adar, one of the two fathers in the suit, gave the real meaning for why this case was so important.

As an adopted child myself, I understand the need to feel like you belong. I remember as a child wanting to see my own birth certificate and to see my parents listed because it gave me a sense of belonging, of identity and of dignity.  I want our child to see Mickey’s name and my name as parents on his birth certificate.

Because of this court ruling, their child will now get to see just that.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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