Vermont

A second parent adoption is a legal procedure that allows a same-sex parent to adopt a partner’s biological or adoptive child without terminating the legal rights of the first parent. States must honor second-parent adoptions from other states.

Second-parent adoption is authorized in California by statute - and where appellate courts have ruled that the state adoption law permits second-parent adoption.

A statute is a law passed by a legislature. An appellate court is about appeals. It has the power to review the judgment of another lower court or tribunal.

A religious legal group presented oral arguments for Lisa Miller (r) against Janet Jenkins (l) in a groundbreaking custody case involving Vermont civil unions.

Vermont House and Senate members want to ask citizens if the Legislature should allow same-sex couples to marry.

A 10-member commission has been created to hold public hearings on the subject. The group is scheduled to complete its study by the end of April 2008 and report to the Legislature.

It's a tale of two women who lived together as a couple for several years in Virginia before traveling to Vermont in 2000 to enter into a civil union. Their daughter was born in Virginia in 2002, after one woman was impregnated with sperm from an anonymous donor. The donor sperm was chosen by the woman's partner.

When the baby was 4 months old, the women moved to Vermont, where they lived for about a year before separating. The biological mom and daughter moved back to Virginia, and the bio-mom had refused to let her ex-partner to see their daughter.

The New York Times Editorial
Published: June 7, 2007

A potentially groundbreaking legal battle over Connecticut’s exclusion of gay people from the state’s marriage law has catapulted the debate over same-sex marriage to a new level.

The Oregon House passed two bills that will allow same-sex couples the same benefits as married couples, and protection against discrimination. Governor Ted Kulongoski plans to sign both.

The first bill would enable same-sex couples to enter into contractual relationships that grant them the same benefits offered to married couples under state law. The bill refers to the relationships as domestic partnerships.