Mich. court recognizes IL lesbian adoption (X-Post from LBN)

Mich. court recognizes IL lesbian adoption

Source: 365gay.com and Associated Press

(Lansing, Michigan) Michigan courts can oversee a custody dispute between lesbian parents who adopted in Illinois even though Michigan doesn’t formally recognize gay relationships, the state Court of Appeals has ruled.

The court ruled 2-1 on Friday that the U.S. Constitution requires state courts to recognize Diane Giancaspro and Lisa Congleton as adoptive parents. It reversed a trial judge who said Michigan’s 2004 voter-approved gay marriage ban kept her from enforcing the women’s parental rights.

“The only relevant consideration in this matter is each individual party’s established relationship as an adoptive parent with the children, not their relationship with each other,” Judges Alton Davis and Stephen Borrello wrote.

Judge Kurtis Wilder dissented because he said Giancaspro didn’t show documents authenticating the Illinois adoption.

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The ruling Friday prompted American Family Association of Michigan President Gary Glenn to call for a ballot measure that would ban gay adoptions in the state.

Read more: http://www.365gay.com/news/mich-court-recognizes-il-les... /

1. Full faith and credit clause mandates respect for judgments (the adoption order) from other states
2. The child's relationship with each parent (separately) has nothing to do with whether the child's parents are (or ever were) married, so even a constitutional amendment banning recognition of marriage or marriage-like statuses should have no impact on the child's relationship with each parent. (Some states permit two individuals who are unmarried to adopt - others (like Ohio) do not. Once the adoption is final, however, all other states must respect the order establishing the parent-child relationship - even if that state could not legally create the relationship in the first place.)

It's shameful that a judge misunderstands constitutional principles so badly that there was a vote against it. (That said, if they routinely require documents authenticating the out of state adoptive relationship other parents - and did not for these parents, Judge Wilder would be legally correct, but it is also a problem easily remedied.)