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We’ve had two great pro-equality events here in my state to report. First, on Monday the Durham City Council approved a resolution in support of marriage equality, and then this great legal ruling in support of adoption rights involving our only out state senator, Julia Boseman.
A three-judge panel of the court unanimously agreed that Boseman’s 2005 adoption of Melissa Jarrell’s child cannot be undone. State law creates a nearly impossible hurdle for reversing completed adoptions, and to nullify the adoption and deny Boseman joint custody, Jarrell had challenged whether state law even allowed gay or lesbian parents to adopt.
“While [state law] does not specifically address same-sex adoptions, these statutes do make clear that a wide range of adoptions are contemplated and permitted, so long as they protect the minor’s ‘needs, interests, and rights,’” Judge Wanda Bryant wrote in the opinion.
…State law governing adoption does not specifically mention adoption by same-sex couples. Jim Lea, a domestic law specialist in Wilmington and one of Boseman’s attorneys said that such adoptions have already been occurring. But the court opinion affirms the right of gay and lesbian couples to adopt. “Now I think it’s very clear that if a couple chooses to go out and adopt the child and execute the necessary waivers, that homosexual couples can adopt children,” Lea said. “To say that a couple should not be able to adopt a child because they’re gay, on that reason alone is just plain wrong.”
Is Charlie Crist listening down there in Florida?
Hat tip, Billy T.
17 Comments
North Carolina…the times they are a changingWho would have thunk it?
Great news!Come on out of those Dark Ages, North Carolina! Let these kids have loving parents!
Is there a chance this can be appealed to a higher court? The NC Supreme Court?
STATE COURT OF APPEALS….ah ha!You didn't say which court. Good so it is statewide.
Amen
Well, possible, but….I can’t imagine the state supreme court reversing this decision. It’s pretty clear the ruling states a non-disputable fact: NC Adoption law doesn’t mention same-sex couples, period. Thus, the adoption was fully legal and legit under state law. I just can’t see the state supreme court reversing that.
What I do see is wingnuts on the General Assembly push to change that law. But since Dems currently run both the state house and state senate, it would be a huge uphill battle.
Fodder for the next election though? You bet.
NC is getting better all the timeHere is some more coverage by a NC based gay newspaper:
http://www.q-notes.com/3339/co…
Here is some more info about the Charlotte NC (aka Queen City) based paper for anyone who is interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q…
More than an Uphill Battlethis is the legislator that passed pro-gay legislation with Bullying Bill & the Health Youth Act (comprehensive sex ed), & the legislator that beat down the anti-equality constitutional amendment keeping us as the only southern state with out one…if the wingnuts couldn’t stop that, I don’t think they have any chance here.
Is Charlie Crist listening down there in Florida?I seriously doubt it. This isn’t the sound of money dropping into the republican campaign contribution bucket. Plus what would the wingers in Fl. think if he did support any LGBT laws?
As long as the Sugar industry in Florida can buy the permission to continue to destroy the everglades, that is all that is needed to win in Florida.
OTOH, way to go NC
An interesting placeNorth Carolina, at least from my experience in the northeast portion of the state, is slowly becoming liberalized.
It has a long way to go of course. For instance, when you have a predominance of churches every mile or so, you have a problem.
But listen to me, here in Rhode Island there’s a church every 6 blocks or so.
AlsoIt’s unlikely Charlie can hear anything. He’s got his head up his a**!
There is always a chance Jarrell will petition for cert to the State Supreme CourtHowever, since the District Court and then the Appellate Court ruled based on statute, it is HIGHLY unlikely that the State Supreme Court will grant a petition for writ of certioriari and hear further appeal from Jarrell’s side.
To contrast this, in the case of Heatzig vs. MacLean, the district court held that an ex-partner of a biological parent was due joint physical custody and visitation, though sole legal custody was awarded to the birth mother. The state appellate court overturned this ruling, saying that co-parenting agreements did NOT confer legal parental status on a person in loco parentis. This is the kicker in the appellate opinion:
For more on this subject in N.C., see Estroff vs. Chatterjee.
In previous cases, the parents involved had de facto co-parenting agreements, but the non-biological mother was not a legal parent by virtue of second-parent adoption. In such cases, it’s going to be up to the goodwill of the district court or appellate court judge whether or not to award legal parental status to the non-biological parent.
So if you want to have children with your partner in North Carolina, a co-parenting agreement is insufficient. You need to do a second-parent adoption. Now that the State Appellate Court has upheld second-parent adoptions as valid in Jarrell and Boseman’s case, North Carolina LGBT parents have both statute and precedent on their side for the legality of second-parent adoptions between same-sex couples.
This should be common sense no matter where you live. If you can’t enter into a second-parent adoption in the state where you live, your legal rights as a parent aren’t safe.
And by the wayI personally think it’s appalling that LGBT people are willing to bring lawsuits that can have widespread negative ramifications, essentially stripping gay people of the right to parent their children, just to get back at an ex. That’s really fucked up and needs to stop. Especially when they’re using legal teams from fundie christian orgs bent on destroying our legal rights nationwide.
If you have problems with your ex, go to mediation. Don’t use your children as pawns to hurt him/her, and don’t bring lawsuits that can fuck over the rest of us for decades to come just because you’re angry and feeling vengeful.
Legally, there may or may not bea case for appeal — IANAL, so I can’t comment there.
There does, though, seem to be a habit among conservative state (and federal) SC justices to ignore both law and precedent for the sake of supporting heterosexual supremacy — see the CA SC’s resurrection of Plessy v. Ferguson in their Prop 8 ruling.
totally agree with you…very sad some people will do this.
I think going Blue for the presidential electionin addition to the fact that we almost always go blue for statewide stuff kind of broken open the perception that NC is a conservative state, and now that people are looking deeper they can see that compared to the rest of the south we aren’t so bad. But I think before that, this state could easily be written off as “red state” simply b/c of past presidential elections.
keep this good stuff upand folks might forget Jesse Helms and Empty Wig Liddy Dole,
OK just Liddy, Jesse will take eons to forget.
Already irrelevant if not forgottenJesse’s granddaughter I believe was an avid Jim Neal supporter (an openly gay business man who ran for US Senate & got a quarter of a million votes here in NC during the primary). I think there is no greater symbol for the increasing irrelevancy of that past hate based belief system than that.
And Liddy got kicked out pretty handily by North Carolinians in favor of a democrat.