In September, The Massachusetts Su-
preme Judicial Court ruled that “the
state’s law on joint adoptions does not
require a legal marriage and that same-
sex couples are eligible to jointly adopt
children,” according to a Washington
Blade article. This ruling was prompt-
ed by the joint adoption case of Dr. Su-
san Love and Dr. Helen Cooksey. Their
lawyer, Katherine Triantafillou, stated
that the three judges who voted against
the ruling “would have voted to approve
the adoption if Cooksey was given pa-
rental rights and Love surrendered pa-
rental rights but retained custody and
visitation rights.”

In October, an editorial in The New
York Times stated, “In deciding what’s
best for a child, it’s fair to look at a
large range of issues. But the sexual or-
ientation of parents is not one of them.
Gay parents should not have to live in
fear of losing their children simply be-
cause of who they are.”

While many positive events are taking
place, not all is rosy. In September, a
state judge in Virginia gave custody of a
two year old to the child's grandmother
because the child’s mother, Sharon Bot-
toms, is a lesbian and also involved in a
relationship. A circuit court judge said
Bottoms’ “conduct is illegal and immoral
and renders her an unfit parent.”

Nancy Polikoff, Assistant Professor of
Law at American University in Wash-
ington, D.C., cites another downside to

-_————~

   
   

all that is positive. She has stated that
most of these adoption rulings apply to
gays and lesbians who want to adopt bi-
ological children of their partners, and
courts are much less likely to grant
adoptions to same—sex couples who go
through social service agencies. Also,
Florida and our neighbor, New Hamp-
shire, have specific laws prohibiting
adoptions by partners of the same sex.

Unfortunately, Verrnont’s H283, if it
becomes law, is not far from doing the
same. According to Goslant, the Adop-
tion Reform Task Force, the committee
that authored the bill, did not want to
deal with the issue of adoption by same-
sex couples at all. The committee felt
that “same-sex marriage” laws should
come first. However, they were later
convinced that not mentioning the issue
was the same as taking a stand against
it. “This is by no means the only thing
we need to do with custody” Goslant
said in a phone interview, “There’s still
more work to do.” He said that with the
religious right doing a great deal of
grass-roots organizing and the un-
certainty of H283, “the rights of our
kids are still not guaranteed.”

To find out more about the status of the
Adoption Reform Bill, contact the Ver-
mont Coalition of Lesbians and Gay
Men, PO Box 1125, Montpelier, VT
05602. V

Out in the Mountains

January 1994

Hardwick ,
Chiropractic

 

Dr. Grace Johnstone
An integrated approach
to health care.

l Mill St., Hardwlck
472-3033

JOHN
THIBAULT
8: CO.

total
hair
care

Kara M arabella

658-2010
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