Families in Michigan are hopeful that legislation to legalize second-parent adoption will make it to law before the session ends this year. (Last year, similar proposed legislation died.) Michigan, like most states, does not have an explicit law allowing the adoption of a child by a parent's unmarried partner (same or different sex) and while some judges will agree to such adoptions, many will not. A law would protect the rights of a single parent to choose a second parent for her child, whether or not that second parent was her legal spouse.
Same-sex parents in de facto nuclear families are obvious beneficiaries of such law, but are not the only ones. Unmarried heterosexual couples would be able to protect and provide for each other's children this way as well. Depending on how the law is written, it could allow a person who is not in a romantic relationship with the parent to adopt too.
This is the kind of law we need to see nation-wide. Right now, most often, families depend on the whims or prejudices of individual judges to rule on whether or not a second-parent adoption will be allowed. A law protecting people from discrimination in second-parent adoption based on marital status is the best way to, in turn, protect their children and allow them to have the stability of two parents responsible for their support and protection.
It is high time family law in the United States recognized the many situations in which children grow up these days, and strengthened those situations for the benefit of the children, rather than prescribing one family style and punishing children who don't happen to have it.
Good luck to those parents and children in Michigan who could benefit immeasurably from this law.
See also:
Lose the Guilt and Shame, Lose the Pain: Open Adoption Records
Iowa Mulling Same-Sex Birth Certificates
The Orphan Trade and International Adoption
image: nontraditionalfamilylaw.com
