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Gay Families and the Courts: The Quest for Equal Rights by Susan Gluck Mezey

By Susan Gluck Mezey

Susan Gluck Mezey's most modern publication, homosexual households and the Courts, is a compelling exam of the position of the country and federal courts in furthering the ambitions of the homosexual and lesbian neighborhood. in contrast to Mezey's prior e-book, Queers in court docket, this e-book evaluates the level to which litigation is efficacious in advancing equivalent rights for homosexual families_families within which at the least one member is gay_as they search to extend their possibilities and conflict discrimination. Mezey indicates how the courts deal with homosexual and lesbian rights and sexual orientation in colleges and social businesses reminiscent of the Boy Scouts in addition to family-oriented difficulties reminiscent of marriage and parenthood. In doing so, Mezey emphasizes the complexity of the problems considering the circumstances, and assesses the measure to which the result of the litigation is defined by means of the kind of case, the kind of court docket, and the judge's conception of his or her position as a policymaker. it's a beneficial reference for students attracted to judicial, legislative, and government policymaking on the federal and kingdom point in addition to somebody attracted to LGBT politics.

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The lower court, reading the law narrowly, refused to apply the exception and rejected the adoption petition filed by Jane and Deborah. Jane was the biological mother of the children; Deborah, her partner, sought to adopt them through a second-parent adoption. The adoption was endorsed by all the professionals implicated in the case, yet the judge did not reach the question of whether the adoption was in the children’s best interests. He denied the petition on the grounds that it was inconsistent with Vermont’s adoption law.

Chicago Tribune December 3, 2008). The Family Council was also largely responsible for the anti-gay marriage amendment passed earlier (Seattle Post-Intelligencer November 6, 2008; Arkansas News Bureau 2008). ” But, he said, more broadly, it was also aimed at “blunting a gay agenda that we see at work in other states with regard to marriage and adoption issues” (New York Times November 9, 2008). 39 But despite their pressing needs, some states preclude gays from serving as foster parents by making heterosexuality a basis for eligibility; at times they do this through child welfare agency regulations and at other times by legislative decree.

50 The plaintiffs contended that the legislature had created the stepparent exception because it recognized that changing patterns of family life (divorce, blended families, stepparents) required a new model. They argued 28 Chapter 1 that in a stepparent adoption, the legislature had properly envisioned that the custodial parent would remain part of the child’s life and that to terminate that parent’s relationship with the child would be absurd. Similarly, it would be absurd to terminate the legal parent’s relationship with the child in a second-parent adoption.

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