Mississippi Ban on Adoptions by Same Sex Couples Is Challenged

When Mississippi adopted a one-sentence law forbidding adoptions by same-sex couples in 2000, it was not so surprising: For decades, gays and lesbians in several states had run into roadblocks when they sought to adopt or foster children. So it was a potent marker of how fast laws and attitudes on gay rights issues have changed on Wednesday when civil rights lawyers filed suit in federal court challenging the law.

Mississippi’s ban is now the only one of its kind in the nation. And legal experts said that in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision upholding same-sex marriage it was highly unlikely the state’s ban could hold up in court. The lawsuit was filed by the Campaign for Southern Equality, the Family Equality Council and four Mississippi same-sex couples.

“We’ve come so far here just recently, it’s pretty amazing the speed of the change,” said Janet Smith, a plaintiff in the case, who is seeking to adopt the 8-year-old daughter, Hannah Marie Phillips, she is raising with her wife, Donna Phillips. Because of the adoption ban, Ms. Smith has no official status in Hannah’s life, Ms. Phillips being her only legal parent.

“We’ve had no problem, but I am in the military, so I could be called or activated at any time, and we are concerned about the legal aspects for Jan if something happened,” said Ms. Phillips, who is a captain in the Mississippi Air National Guard.

At one point, they tried to find someone who would do the home study that would be a requirement for adoption, but could not find anyone who would come to their home to do it. Both women are cautiously hopeful that the lawsuit will quickly change their situation. “It seems like it’s just the logical next step, but oftentimes Mississippi doesn’t take the logical next step,” Ms. Smith said.

29% of same sex couples raising children

Last year, 29 percent of Mississippi’s same-sex-couples were raising children under 18 in their households — the highest percentage of any state in the nation, the complaint said.

“The Mississippi Adoption Ban writes inequality into Mississippi law by requiring that married gay and lesbian couples and parents be treated differently than all other married couples in Mississippi, unequivocally barring them from adoption without regard to their circumstances,” the complaint said. It called the ban “an outdated relic of a time when courts and legislature believed that it was somehow O.K. to discriminate against gay people simply because they are gay.”

Neither the governor’s office nor the state attorney general’s office returned messages Tuesday afternoon, asking whether the state would fight to uphold the ban against the challenge.

Roberta Kaplan, the New York lawyer handling the case, said that after the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed obvious to her and her clients that “the time was right to challenge the adoption ban and get it cleaned up.”

That the case now seems more likely to be a mop-up operation than an all-out legal confrontation is an indicator of just how swiftly the social change has taken hold.

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New York Times, August 12, 2015 by Tamar Lewin