Adoption News - 4 - Lesbian Couple from Vermont Prevails in an Adoption Suit Burlington Free Press, April 7, 2003

[ Gay Couples sue over Okla. Adoption Law ] [ Children's Groups appeal overturning of Florida Gay Adoption Ban ]

[ Britain Parliament Oks Gay Adoption ] [ Lesbian Couple from VT Prevail in Adoption Suit ] [ Out of the Shadows ]

[ ACLU Dismayed by 11th Circuit Appeal Upholding Floridas Anti-Gay Adoption Law ] [ US Adoptions Get Easier ]

[ Supreme Court Lets Stand Floridas Gay Adoption Ban ] [ Experts Dispute Bush on Gay Adoption Issue ]

[ Adoptees Deserve Access to Family Health Histories ] [ Committee Defeats Bill to Ban Gays from Adoption ]

[ Civil Debate Over Civil Union ] [ Study Says Foreign Children Adapt Well ] [ Custody After Civil Union Pits States and Judges ]

[ Birth Mothers vs Egg Donor Decision Upheld ] [ Hello I'm Your Sister - Our Father is Donor 150 ]

[ Lund Family Center Capital Campaign Remarks ] [ Unwed Fathers Fight for Babies Placed for Adoption by Mothers ]

[ Adoption Institute Supports Gay Parents ] [ Gays See Shift in Momentum Toward Acceptance in Alabama ]

[ Judge Rejects Law on Gay Adoptions ] [ Perdue vs Mississippi ] [ Gay Marriage Losing Punch as Ballot Issue ]

[ Gay Couple Awaits Adoption Ruling from US Court ] [ China Tightens Adoption Rules, U.S. Agencies Say ]

[ A Taste of US Family Life, But Adoption in Limbo ] [ Gay Couple Win Lawsuit Against Adoption Web Site in Arizona... ]

[ Significant Victory for Same Sex Couples in Oklahoma ] [ Report Urges States To Open Adoptee Records for Adults ]

[ State Court Recognizes Gay Marriage From Elsewhere ] [ Miami Judge Rules Against Florida Gay Adoption Ban ]

[ House Passes Bill Restricting Birth Certificates For Adoptions By Unmarried Couples ]

Lesbian Couple from Vermont Prevails in an Adoption Suit Burlington Free Press, April 7, 2003

Montpelier, Vt. (AP) - A lesbian couple from Vermont have won a fight to have both of their names listed on the birth certificate of a boy adopted from Mississippi five years ago.

A Mississippi judge this week ordered the State Bureau of Public Health Statistics to issue a revised birth certificate reflecting the name of the boy and his parents, Holly Perdue and Cheri Goldstein or Worcester.

If the ruling stands, "we can get him a passport; we can register him in school, we can get him a social security number", said Perdue, who adopted the boy as a newborn. "And he can go to Canada for the baseball game."

Perdue and Goldstein filed suit in the fall of 2001 in Hinds County Chancery Court asking the judge to order the state to issue the birth certificate showing them as the boy's adoptive parents.

New York-based Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights advocacy group, and a Mississippi attorney represented the couple.

The Bureau of Public Health Statistics held up the issuance of the birth certificate because they noticed on documents that both adoptive parents were female.

But in his decision, Judge William Hale Singletary said there was nothing in state law at the time of the adoption saying what gender the parents should be. Mississippi has since outlawed adoptions by gay couples.

"...the Bureau has no discretion to deviate from the statue's terms," Singletary wrote. He granted Lambda's request for a summary judgment in the case, and ordered the bureau to deliver the revised birth certificate to the Mississippi lawyer for Perdue and Goldstein within 10 days of the decision.

"(The Child) was lawfully adopted in Vermont and that adoption is due the recognition of the courts and administrative agencies of Mississippi," the judge wrote.

The validity of the adoption was never at issue in Vermont, where a court approved it in April 2000.

Peter W. Cleveland, the lawyer who handled the case for the Mississippi attorney general's office, said Wednesday that state had not decided if it would appeal.

Back to top