Unmarried parents considered unsuitable

Attorney general asks Indiana Supreme Court for ruling

Laura McPhee

Steve Carter

Attorney General Steve Carter has asked the Indiana Supreme Court to overturn a ruling allowing an unmarried couple to jointly adopt the foster child they have raised since the baby was two days old.

Earlier this year, Marion County appellate judges granted a joint petition for adoption of the child to Kim Brennan and Becki Hamilton. The couple has been together for more than 12 years and became the baby’s foster parents two years ago when the Morgan County Office of Family and Children placed the infant with the couple for foster care two days after her birth. After the couple was granted the adoption, Morgan County Judge Matthew Hanson filed an appeal to have the adoption overturned.

Hanson had been the judge overseeing the case terminating the parental rights of the baby’s birth mother. When he learned that the prospective adoptive parents were lesbians, Hanson ordered the Morgan County Office of Family and Children to look for a married couple to adopt the baby instead. The Marion County court granted Brennan and Hamilton the adoption before Hanson’s wishes could be carried out. Hanson then filed an appeal claiming that he had jurisdiction in the case, not the Marion County court. In April, the Indiana Court of Appeals voted 2-1 in favor of the adoptive parents and against Judge Hanson.

Now the attorney general is asking the Supreme Court to intervene and overturn the Court of Appeals ruling. “There has been conflict among trial and appellate judges about whether two people can jointly adopt a child when they are not married,” Carter said in a press release last week. “Given such a division thus far among five judges at two different levels of our courts, and given the fact that the state Supreme Court has not yet had the opportunity to interpret the most recent relevant enactment of the Legislature, I find it proper to invite the High Court to be heard in this matter.”

While the question of whether or not marriage should be a requirement for adoptive parents has wide-ranging implications for all unmarried couples, most lawmakers who support Carter’s position are chiefly concerned with preventing same-sex couples from becoming parents. State Sen. Jeff Drozda (R-Westfield) is now promising to re-introduce legislation prohibiting gay individuals or couples from becoming adoptive parents.

“Regardless of the final outcome [of the legal battle], it’s more important to have public policy set by members of the General Assembly rather than judges,” Drozda said. “This is a public policy decision. It is up to [legislators] to decide what this state will permit and what it won’t.”

Recently, Drozda introduced Senate Bill 580, requiring that only a married couple that consists of individuals of the opposite sex is eligible to adopt, while Sen. John Waterman (R-Vigo County) presented Senate Bill 585 specifically prohibiting a homosexual from being a foster parent or adopting. According to Waterman, “Because they can’t reproduce, homosexuals have to recruit! We must continue to fight back in order to preserve our children’s innocence!”

The adoption case is not expected to be heard by the Indiana Supreme Court before this year’s election or before next year’s General Assembly meets, and Brennan and Hamilton will retain custody during the appeals process. If a bill that forbids granting adoption rights to same-sex couples becomes law next spring, it will be the law the Supreme Court would be forced to consider when making their ruling.

Steps to pass laws or secure November ballot initiatives preventing same-sex couples from becoming adoptive parents are underway in more than a dozen states. Florida has banned all homosexuals from becoming adoptive parents since 1977. Mississippi bans adoption by gay couples, but gay singles can adopt. Utah prohibits all unmarried couples from adoption.