PA high court ok's second-parent adoption for children of lesbian/gay couples

Aug 21, 2002

Today, in a long-awaited, groundbreaking decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a child may be adopted by his or her legal parent's unmarried partner. "Many children are being raised by two loving parents, but only one of them is the child's legal parent, either through birth or prior adoption," explained Susan Frietsche, Staff Attorney for the Western Pennsylvania office of the Women's Law Project and counsel for 75 organizations supporting the adoptions at issue in the case. The Superior Court ruled in 2000 that when parents are not married to each other, the children they are raising cannot be adopted by the second parent. Today's decision overturned that lower court's ruling. "It's a victory for children's rights and a welcome acknowledgment of the hundreds and hundreds of lesbian and gay families in the Commonwealth," said Dabney Miller, Associate Director of the Women's Law Project in Philadelphia.

"I'm thrilled with the Court's decision, because it's a great victory for these kids," said Christine Biancheria, counsel for the petitioners in the case, two families from Lancaster and Erie counties. "Children should not be discriminated against because their parents are lesbian or gay," she continued. "They're entitled to the same benefits, rights, and protections that children in all other families have. Today's decision means that kids in lesbian and gay families can get health insurance, Social Security benefits, inheritance rights, and the right to child support from their other parent."

The Court's opinion, written by Chief Justice Stephen A. Zappala and joined by four other justices without dissent, was anxiously awaited by lesbian and gay parents across the Commonwealth, who are forbidden by state law from marrying and who have been barred from adopting their partners' children since the Superior Court's decision two years ago.

"With this historic ruling, Pennsylvania joins Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Washington D.C., Vermont, Massachusetts, and other states in recognizing that families come in all shapes and sizes," said David S. Cohen, Staff Attorney for the Women's Law Project in Philadelphia. Among the organizations supporting second-parent adoption are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Bar Association, the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Family Law Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association, the Support Center for Child Advocates, the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, and a growing number of churches and synagogues.

The Women's Law Project is a non-profit women's legal advocacy organization with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.