GO TO:Lavender Index | Sonoma County Free Press Home Page | Columns | Features

Issue: February, 1993

Adoption Laws Unchanged
for Unmarried Couples

Because of a missed deadline and stalled legislation, adoption of children by unmaried couples in California is still the same iffy proposition it has been for most of the decade - social workers must recommend against it, but judges can still rule in favor of it.

This contradictory position, which is mandated by the state Department of Social Services, continues to enjoy the status of "policy" only, because the agency failed to met a July 18 deadline for turning its policy into a more official "regulation."

According to the Department of Social Services chief counsel Larry Bolton, the agency decided to go back to square one with its attempt to formalize its adoption policy because the wording of the new proposed regulation, originally published in July, 1996, was "misleading."

"The information digest said the regulations would prevent unmarried couples from adopting, but it actually only recommends against these adoptions," said Bolton. Because of this "misstatement," most of the over 1,000 people who commented at three hearings held around the state last September on the proposed regulation "were off point," said Bolton. His agency is planning to prepare a new, "more accurate," informative digest, said Bolton, but there is no deadline set for its completion.

Although the new regulation, which was proposed by Governor Pete Wilson, would "merely put into regulatory form" the policy which the state already follows for unmarried couples seeking adoption, Kate Kendell of the National Center for Lesbian risghts says adoption advocates are still hoping it will just fade away.

"We're taking a very low profile so Wilson doesn't start this whole process again," she said. "We were concerned that some judges would have taken the regulations more seriously (than the policy). It would have been disappointing to have it on the books."

Meanwhile, an Assembly bill that would provide equal adoption status for married couples, unmarried couples and single adults, has been placed on the inactive list after failing to attract enough support.

"It was targeted as a gay issue," said a legislative aide for Assemblyman Kevin Murray, D-Culver City, a non-gay legislator who introduced the bill known as AB 53.

Although the bill has the support of such non-gay identified organizations as the National Association of social Workers. the California Adoption Alliance, and the California Teachers' Association, the "radical right" was still able to keep it from a full floor vote by attaching hostile amendments that were unacceptable to the supporters of the bill.

Murray's staffer said the bill will most likely be reintroduced "sometime in January" allowing its backers time to garner more support. According to this staffer, all the assembly members who represent Sonoma and Marin Counties favor the legislation, including Virginia Strom-Martin, Valerie Brown and Kerry Mazzoni.