OK Gay Adoption Law Declared Unconstitutional

Thanks to Democratic Underground (and the Dallas News) for this one.

It's just one Federal judge and it's already infuriated the fundamentalists but it's a start.

Finally, full faith and credit has some meaning.

It doesn't address OK law re adoption in that state but if families move to or visit Oklahoma with their adopted kids, the adoption should be recognized.

Click on title please. No - don't. It requires registration (which I just did). Here it is.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal judge on Friday struck down a two-year-old state law that prohibited state officials from recognizing same sex adoptions from other states or countries.

In a 31-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron ruled that the measure violated the U.S. Constitution's due process requirements because it attempted to break up families without considering the fitness of the parents or the best interests of the children.

Instead, Cauthron wrote, the state statute "attempts that break up only because the ... adults are of the same sex. Such an act cannot survive..."

The decision was attacked by supporters of the law, which was passed by the Legislature with bipartisan support in 2004.

"It's another case of an activist court trying to legislate from the bench," said Rep. Thad Balkman, R-Norman. "It's unfortunate that a single judge is trying to rewrite the law."

It was praised by Lambda Legal, a national organization that defends the rights of gays and lesbians. The group challenged the law on behalf of same-sex couples and their families who adopted children while living in other states and later moved to Oklahoma or wanted to visit the state with their family.

"Gay and lesbian parents in Oklahoma can now breathe a collective sigh of relief because their relationships with their children are no longer threatened by the state of Oklahoma," said Ken Upton, an attorney in Lambda Legal's Dallas office who was involved in the case.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Anne Magro and Heather Finstuen, who have been together for 14 years. They are the parents of 7-year-old twin girls born to Magro and adopted through a second-parent adoption by Finstuen when they lived in New Jersey.

The family now lives in Norman, where Magro teaches accounting at the University of Oklahoma.

In part, the state law said Oklahoma "shall not recognize an adoption by more than one individual of the same sex from any other state or foreign jurisdiction."

The couple alleged the statute endangered the legal relationship established by a New Jersey court between Finstuen and her adopted daughters.

"The very fact that the adoptions have occurred is evidence that a court of law has found the adoptions to be in the best interests of the children," Cauthron wrote. The state statute "attempts to undo that determination with no consideration of changed circumstances or any other evidence that indicates the earlier decision was in any way incorrect."

The judge said the law essentially tells one of the adults "you are no longer the parent of your child" and "clearly infringes on the fundamental right to the care, custody, and rearing of the child."

State lawmakers passed the measure after Attorney General Drew Edmondson ruled that if a same-sex couple got an adoption decree in another state for an Oklahoma-born child, and the decree listed both partners as parents, then the state Department of Health must issue a supplementary birth certificate also listing both partners as parents.

The Health Department sought the opinion, saying it needed direction on how to handle the issuance of birth certificates requested by same-sex couples who adopted children from Oklahoma.

Edmondson issued another opinion at the time stating that Oklahoma law bars same-sex marriages and does not recognize homosexual unions in other states.