home > lgbt equality Child and Family Services Seeks to Ban Adoptions by Same Sex Couples The Pillar: Spring 1999 By Joanna Kobak-Hudson, ACLU of Utah Research Director On January 22, 1999, the Utah Board of Child and Family Services voted 7-2 to implement a policy seeking to exclude same sex couples polygamists and other individuals from the state adoption process. The policy, created and proposed by Board Chairman Scott Clark, requires that each home study of prospective adoptive parents include "verification that adults present in the home are legally related to parent(s) by blood or legal marriage." Although gay and lesbian citizens of Utah can in fact adopt a child individually, the amendment effectively bars any same sex couple residing together at the time of the adoption application. During the allotted public comment period prior to the Board’s vote, anti-gay rights activists such as Gayle Ruzicka of the Eagle Forum promoted the rule as a necessary measure to ensure that needy children are placed in the "very best of homes." Mr. Clark defended his proposal in part by suggesting a greater occurrence of sexual abuse by homosexual parents, relying on controversial social science research supported by the conservative group known as the Family Research Council. The heterosexual married relationship was extolled by various advocates of the rule change as the ideal family environment, emphasizing the importance of traditional male and female roles in child rearing. In addition to emotional personal testimony offered by gay parents and children raised in same sex households, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah also expressed its formal opposition to the amendment on various legal and policy grounds. In its position statement, the ACLU highlighted that the Board ignored the official positions of the Child Welfare League, the American Association of Social Workers and the American Psychological Association, all of which assert that sexual orientation to be irrelevant to parental fitness, condemning discrimination against same sex couples in the adoption process. "I don’t think married couples have a monopoly on the ability to love, understand or create a stable loving environment," stated former juvenile court judge Regnal Garff in his dissent from the majority vote in favor of the policy. In addition to conflicting with the requirement that "no single factor should be decisive in an of itself" when considering applicants, the rule works as an outright ban on adoption by same sex couples when even convicted felons are afforded an individualized assessment as to their parental fitness. The ACLU underscored its commitment to fighting for equal protection under the law for gay and lesbian citizens, assuring the Division’s Board that it will consider the available options in order to oppose the new measure. Most important, however, is the fact that the new policy will further reduce an already insufficient amount of prospective adoptive parents. The ACLU joined dissenting Board members Judge Garff and Paula Johnson in stressing that the amendment will make a difficult adoption process far worse by limiting the number of eligible adoptive parents. Ironically, if the Division enforces this policy, it will be the children within Utah’s foster care system who will suffer most as a result of this policy change.

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