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CARE Press
Release, February 2005
Detroit News, Gays Put Family First, January 2005
CARE Press Release, February 25, 2005
STATE AGENCY SUPPORTS EXPANDING
ADOPTIONS
Expanding Pool of Adoptive Parents Helps Everyone
(Lansing) - Children's rights activists got a boost last week when the
Office of Children's Ombudsman recommended greater access to second-parent
adoptions.
The Office of the Children's Ombudsman is an independent government agency
that works to assure the safety of children in the child welfare system
by investigating complaints regarding foster care placements, advocating
for children, and recommending changes to improve law, policy and practice
regarding child welfare. In its 2003 Annual Report, the OCO recommended
the Michigan Adoption Code be amended to, "…permit adoption
of a child by two adults who are not married if the court determines it
is in the child's best interest." This change in the law would benefit
the child by ensuring the eligibility for health benefits by both parents,
ensuring both parents can consent to medical treatment, and creating financial
security for the child.
Current Michigan law is ambiguous as it relates to second-parent adoptions
for unmarried couples. Because of this, the Coalition for Adoption Rights
Equality, Triangle Foundation and dozens of other organizations and policy
makers have been advocating for a second-parent adoption bill that would
ensure the legal recognition of both parents regardless of the parent's
marital status or sexual orientation.
"This recommendation is a great step towards protecting children,"
says Beverly Davidson, President of CARE. "There are over 20,000
children in Michigan's foster care system, so expanding the adoption code
to allow for more families to create a permanent home for kids is the
right thing to do, and we hope the legislature will respond accordingly."
The issue of second-parent adoptions made headlines around the state in
the summer of 2002 when Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Maura
Corrigan ordered Washtenaw County judges to stop performing them. The
move was controversial because judges are not permitted to order other
judges to change policy or procedure without an actual case before them.
"Some lawmakers are jeopardizing the rights of children, in order
to stop a handful of qualified gay and lesbian couples from jointly adopting
their children," said Sean Kosofsky, Director of Policy for Triangle
Foundation, Michigan's leading gay rights organization. "They are
cutting off their nose to spite their face. All children need and deserve
a legal relationship with both their legal parents, and any effort to
stop that is short-sighted and selfish."
There are thousands of children who cannot have permanent legal relationships
with both of their parents because of inequities in Michigan's adoption
code. This leaves the children in legal ambiguity in case of separation
or death of the legal parent. Children continue to languish in foster
care because of a lack of quality adoptive homes. According to the Children's
Defense Fund, Michigan has 7,839 children in Michigan's foster care system
whose parents' rights were terminated, adding more pressure to the already
over-burdened foster care system. Thousands of Michigan families would
adopt these children if the policies and laws of this state focused on
a person's ability to parent and love a child instead of a person's sexual
orientation and legal inability or choice not to marry.
For more information visit: www.secondparentadoption.org or www.tri.org.
Gays
put family first after election trauma
By Deb Price / The Detroit News
Monday, January 10,
2005
Like a lot of gay Americans, Bev Davidson felt mauled by the Nov. 2 elections, when her home state of Michigan and 10 others wrote bans on gay marriage into their constitutions.
But within weeks, the Ann Arbor social worker got a little surprise that recommitted her to fighting for gay equality: She learned she is finally pregnant.
"The Momma Bear in me is making me get up," she says.
In state after state, gay people are coming out of election-trauma hibernation, as legislatures reopen after a year that featured the most anti-gay election in history and the first state-authorized gay weddings.
Picking ourselves up, gay Americans are planning rallies and lobbying days, hosting evening coffees so gay constituents can share their life stories with state lawmakers, joining state groups and considering running for state office. (To contact your lawmakers, go to www.hrc.org )
Key state legislatures to watch are in California, where lawmakers may make history by passing legislation ending marriage discrimination, and Massachusetts, where lawmakers will decide whether to hold a 2006 referendum on keeping gay marriage.
But every state's lawmakers will be asked to address the real needs of gay constituents like Bev Davidson.
Michigan legislators will be urged to outlaw anti-gay discrimination at work and elsewhere, to ban bullying at school, and to explicitly permit second-parent adoptions.
When lawmakers arrive in Lansing to be sworn in on Wednesday, they'll be welcomed on the capitol steps at 11 a.m. by the first-ever, opening day "Protecting Our Families" rally for gay equality.
Meanwhile in gay-friendly Rhode Island, a neighbor of Massachusetts, legislators will again be asked to grant gay couples the freedom to marry. Teensy Rhode Island will be fascinating to watch. Many Massachusetts folks work there. That's already sparking fairness challenges, as Massachusetts married residents demand equal treatment from Rhode Island employers.
Massachusetts also borders Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. The constant mingling of that region's people is spreading the word of how comfortable Massachusetts is growing with its breakthrough and how wrong it is for other states to exclude gay couples from civil marriage.
Where is the Northeast headed? Consider a poll conducted shortly before May 17, when same-sex marriages began in Massachusetts:
Connecticut residents favored gay marriage, by 49 to 46 percent, the University of Connecticut's polling center found. And 52 percent said states should be required to recognize the marriages of gay couples who move there. Overall, 32 percent favored full marriage, 41 percent preferred civil unions and only 25 percent said gay couples should have no legal recognition.
When Michigan lawmakers meet Bev Davidson, they'll be seeing and hearing firsthand why gay families need protection.
As she'll tell them, last summer she and Alexandra Matish wed in Canada. Their public employers offer partner benefits. And Matish went onto Davidson's better health insurance. They had planned to shift the family, including their baby -- lovingly nicknamed The Bean due to its size and unknown gender -- to Matish's health plan so Davidson could be a stay-at-home mom.
But Michigan voters spoiled that option. Prop 2 not only bans recognition of gay marriages, but also of any "similar union," throwing into court whether public employers can keep offering partner benefits.
Matish can't even put Baby Bean on her health plan. Why? Michigan doesn't yet allow her to become the child's second legal parent.
"Lawmakers will be dealing with a feisty pregnant woman," Bean's bio-mom vows. "We're going to do everything we can to protect our child."
Greet your state lawmakers with a friendly "Welcome back." Then put them to work protecting every family.
You can reach Deb Price at (202) 906-8205 or dprice@detnews.com