Indiana Lesbian Mothers Fight to Keep Child; Lambda Legal Argues that Adoption Must be Honored

(Indianapolis, October 14, 2005) — In papers filed in the Indiana Court of Appeals, Lambda Legal argued that the adoption of a baby girl by two lesbian mothers must be honored by the Morgan Juvenile Court, which has instead ordered the child, Morgan, removed from their home.

“Morgan has been a part of this family since she was two days old, and is thriving. The judge’s view that children should only be placed with heterosexual married couples is not the law and would leave her with strangers,” said Patricia M. Logue, Senior Counsel in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago. “There is no justifiable reason for this family to be torn apart and their legal ties jeopardized.”

Lambda Legal represents Becki Hamilton and Kim Brennan in their fight to keep their daughter. Hamilton and Brennan had served as foster parents to several children, and in 2004 were asked by the State to provide a home for an abandoned infant and to consider adopting her. They took the baby home when she was two days old and have provided care for her since then, including naming the child.

After the judge supervising the child’s foster care placement realized that her prospective adoptive parents were lesbians, the court ordered the State child welfare agency to find her a home with a heterosexual married couple instead. The State did not locate such a family for many months and meanwhile the two mothers, who are licensed pre-adoptive foster parents, applied for and were granted an adoption by the Marion Superior Court. The Morgan Juvenile Court then ruled that the adoption was invalid.

Lambda Legal argues that the Morgan Juvenile Court must honor the adoption decree by the Marion Superior Court because that court had proper jurisdiction over the matter and the adoption was lawful and in the child’s best interests.

“The adoption decree keeps Morgan in a stable and loving home where she has done well. It makes no sense to uproot her from her family in hopes that another will be better because the couple can marry,” Logue said.

Barbara J. Baird from the Law Office of Barbara J. Baird in Indianapolis is co-counsel on the case.