When Same-Sex Couples Adopt: Problems of Interstate Recognition

06/09/09 Findlaw (source: ADF Alliance Alert)

Joanna Grossman, a FindLaw columnist, is a professor of law at Hofstra University. She observes that

[t]he marked trend ... is towards permitting same-sex couples and gay and lesbian individuals to adopt on the same terms as other couples and individuals ... But there is another end of the spectrum, where four outlier states reside: Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Utah. Section 63.042 of the Florida Code provides that "No person may adopt if that person is a homosexual." This categorical ban on adoption by homosexuals is the only one in the nation ... Mississippi and Utah bar same-sex couples from jointly adopting children, although neither state bans gay or lesbian individuals from adopting individually.