Legal News

Federal Appeals Court Tells Louisiana To Issue Birth Certificate To Adopted Child Of Gay Couple

By ACLU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Paul Cates (212) 549-2568; cell (917) 566-1294

NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court issued a decision today requiring the state of Louisiana to issue a birth certificate to the adopted child of a gay couple, naming both of the adoptive parents.

The following is a statement from Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.  The parents, Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, were represented by Lambda Legal in the case Adar v. Smith.

"We are pleased that the court saw through the political grandstanding of our attorney general and did the right thing for this boy and his parents. It was shameful that Attorney General Caldwell took such extreme measures to deny a small child a proper birth certificate simply because he didn't like the boy's parents. Hopefully this decision will make him think twice before wasting taxpayer money to defend his anti-gay activism."

Full post as published by ACLU Newsroom on February 18, 2010 (boomark / email).