Melissa Etheridge shares her story about adoption and marriage

Melissa Etheridge knows how it feels to be denied the right to adopt because she’s gay.

“I remembered being a new mom in 1997,” she writes in a blog post at The Daily Beast. “I followed the long trail of red tape to find a way to adopt my children so they could be covered by health insurance, or so I could see them in the hospital in case of some emergency, along with dozens of other reasons.”

She was denied because California prohibited adoption by same-sex couples. But then with the help of a lawyer, she convinced a judge to overrule the denial and allow the adoption to go through.

Melissa now worries that the same obstacles will damage other families if voters pass Proposition 8, the California initiative seeking to overturn the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage.

“Now, I know my preference of lifemate freaks some people out,” she writes. “Maybe it is just their fear of sex or intimacy. I know that they hold up the Bible and say that it’s wrong. Fine, let me stand before my creator and take any consequences there might be to living my life in truth and balance with my spirit.”