Kentucky court forbids gay and lesbian ‘stepparent’ adoptions

The Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled that gays and lesbians must be excluded from step-parent style adoptions.

According to The Courier-Journal, a local woman cannot adopt her partner’s biological child, because “stepparent adoptions are allowed only when the stepmother or father is married to the biological parent, and marriages between gays are forbidden by both statute and Kentucky’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.”

Ten states recognize “stepparent-like adoptions,” according to the ACLU, including most recently Colorado, which last year enacted a law allowing same-sex couples, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives, to jointly adopt children.

Advocates say that if a child can’t be adopted by his second parent, the child loses the right to inherit property from that parent, or receive Social Security benefits or life insurance benefits, or to be eligible for health insurance under that parent’s policy or to sue for their wrongful death.