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from Parenting & Family
California Gay Couple Wins Settlement Against
Arizona-Based Adoption Web Site
May 24, 2007 - A San Jose gay couple (Michael and Rich Butler) has won a significant settlement against an Arizona adoption agency web site over its refusal to post their request for a birth mother for a child in 2003.
Under the agreement, the adoption agency's two web sites, Adoption.com and ParentProfiles.com agreed to either treat all applicants equally or stop doing business in California.
In March, 2007, San Francisco 9th U.S. Circuit Judge Phyllis Hamilton issued an 81-page ruling stating that the lawsuit against the adoption service should go to trial. Hamilton is a Clinton-appointed judge. She has ruled against a ban on partial-birth abortion and ruled in favor of permitting public schools in California to have students say Muslim prayers.
The adoption service was represented by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). ADF attorney Glen Lavy said his clients settled because it wasn't worth a messy trial in California and further litigation. "The California product was not important enough to go to trial over. We were perfectly content to litigate the legal issues, but it just gets too messy."
In this case, California's pro-gay anti-discrimination laws were used to prosecute an out-of-state web site to enforce compliance.
In a San Jose Mercury news article about this case, a photograph is shown of Michael and Rich Butler and their adopted three-year-old daughter. The caption refers to the Butler's as "husbands," but same-sex marriage in California is still illegal.
Additional Reading: Parenting & Family.
Updated: 27 February 2008
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