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VERMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOR LESBIANS, GAY MEN, AND BISEXUALS

Out in the Mountains

  

Volume VIII, Number 1

March 1993

Vermont Supreme Court
Hears Adoption Appeal

On February 3, 1993 the lesbian parents of two children pre-
sented their adoption petition to Vermont’s highest court. As
stated in the brief presented to the Supreme Court, “the boys
were deprived of a second legally recognized parent when the
Probate Court (Judge George Belcher) denied Deborah’s re-
quest to adopt the two boys.”

In addition to the brief presented by the attorneys for the
couple, several national organizations filed an amicus brief in
the case. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Gay
and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and The National Cen-
ter for Lesbian Rights joined in the precedent setting case.
This is the first time the issue of second parent adoption has
been heard by a state supreme court.

A packed courtroom listened for over half an hour as at-
torneys Julie Frame and David Curtis of Burlington and Paula
Ettelbrick of Lambda Legal Defense Fund argued the case.
Frame pointed out the need to consider the best interests of
the children in considering adoptions, and that even the State
of Vermont, through a court ordered home study, had con-
cluded that the adoption should take place. She also high-
lighted the contradictory language of the adoption statutes in
Vermont and suggested that the justices consider second par-
ent adoptions in the same light as step-parent adoptions.

Ettelbrick summarized the history of similar cases around the
country and described the lengths parents in these circum-
stances go to in order to protect their children and families.
She pointed out that even these efforts can not provide the
protection of adoption. In a Florida case when Joan Pearlman
died after a long illness leaving her partner of 13 years and
their 5 year old daughter, J oapn’s parents successfully obtained
custody of the child and later adopted her without notifying
the surviving parent. Eventually the adoption was overturned,
but not until the child had suffered extreme anxiety from re-
moval from her surviving parent.

The Justices asked numerous questions touching on every-
thing from whether constitutional questions applied to wheth-
er there was a limit to the number of parents a child might
have. While there is no limit to the time the court can take to
render a decision, it is expected that they will do so before ‘re-
cessing for the summer. V UNWERSNY OF ViE$l$.§?f}NT'

MAR 5 1993

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Adoption Reform Task Force
Releases Recommendations

The day after a precedent setting hearing on second parent adop-
tion before Vermont’s Supreme Court, the state’s Adoption Re-
form Task Force ended three years of work by releasing its rec-
ommendations for changes to Vermont’s adoption statutes. The
21 person Task Force, established by an act of the legislature in
1990, had the mandate to review adoption law and policy. In re-
leasing its recommendations, the Task Force stated they were not
addressing the issue of gays and lesbians adopting. However, one
of the recommendations would make it impossible for any such
adoptions. The Task Force recommended that “unless they are
married, two people may not adopt one person.”

One of the members of the Task Force, Probate Judge George
Belcher, ruled against the adoption petition of a lesbian couple
last June, giving their inability to legally marry as the reason for
his denial. Another, Representative Timothy Corcoran (D) Ben-
nington, voted against the civil rights bill last April

The Task Force recommendations now go to the Health and Wel-
fare and Judiciary Committees of the legislature for con-
sideration.V

Granting of Domestic Partner
Rights to City Employees
Leads to Larger Concerns

Cleland E. Selby

The discussions generated by the process which lead to the de-
cision by the Burlington City Council to grant health benefits to
domestic partners has also lead to more focus upon the definition
of “family” and the role of the State as well as churches and syn-
agogues in the lives of homosexual people wishing to be ac-
knowledged as “family.” On the 11th of January, the Burlington
City Council in a 9 to 4 vote made the historic decision to provide
“domestic partners” of city employees with the same health care
benefits as married partners currently receive. In so doing, Bur-
lington joined the handful of cities in the United States that pro-
vides such benefits to their employees. It is is the only Vermont
municipality to have done so. All five Progressive and the one In-
dependent Councilor (Cushor, Bailey, Clark, Nolfi, Pine, and
Fombluh) voted in favor of the proposal. The two Republicans,
Dianne Deforge and Peter Brownell (who subsequently an-
nounced his candidacy for mayor), voted against it. The four
Democrats were evenly divided on the issue with Mahoney and

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