Subject: Illinois Appellate Court Sanctions Lesbian Adoption
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 1995 17:38:40 -0400

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 18, 1995

Illinois Appellate Court Allows 
Lesbian Couples to Jointly Adopt 

(CHICAGO, July 18, 1995)  In the first such ruling in Illinois, a state
appellate court  today allowed two lesbian couples to adopt their children
jointly.   In each case, the couple petitioned  for recognition of the
 children's  relationship with both parents in what is commonly called a
 second parent adoption.   The decision, which applies to all unmarried
couples, covers trial courts across the entire state.

"This is a profound victory for the many children in Illinois who have two
unmarried parents,"  said Patricia Logue, managing attorney for the Midwest
Regional Office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents
one of the couples in today s ruling.  " The court s decision recognizes that
the children of gay parents deserve every bit as much security as all other
children. "

Overturning a lower court decision last November, a three-judge panel of  the
Illinois Appellate Court ruled in the two separate cases that state adoption
law allows lesbian and gay couples to adopt together.   
"Nothing in the [Illinois Adoption] Act suggests that sexual orientation is a
relevant consideration.... Sexual orientation is simply not an issue in these
cases,"  wrote Justice DiVito for the unanimous court.

The lesbian couple in Lambda s case, identified in court papers as  K.M.  and
 D.M.,  jointly seeks to adopt their three-year old daughter, Olivia M., whom
K.M. conceived via anonymous donor insemination.  The couple live in Cook
County and have shared responsibility for Olivia since birth.  They seek the
joint  adoption to secure a legal relationship between Olivia M. and D.M.,
without also disturbing the parental rights of the  K.M., the biological
mother.

In the other case, handled by the ACLU of Illinois, one of the mothers seeks
to adopt her partner s two sons. One child was conceived via donor
insemination; the other child was adopted.

Today s decision is the fourth by an appellate court in the country to grant
second parent adoptions to lesbian and gay couples.  Last month, an appellate
court in Washington, D.C. allowed two gay men to adopt their four-year-old
daughter, Hillary, together.  

Of the three state supreme courts which have ruled on this issue, Vermont and
Massachusetts permitted the adoptions, while Wisconsin did not.  New York s
highest court is currently considering the issue in a case which Lambda
argued in June 1995.  In at least 14 other states, trial courts have granted
second-parent adoptions, recognizing that they are in the child s best
interest.

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Contact: Denny Lee,  (212) 995-8585/0085