A strongly worded
opinion from the Kentucky court of appeals has barred
judges from granting same-sex partners the right to
adopt children as stepparents, reports The
[Louisville] Courier-Journal.
The 3-0 ruling
decreed that stepparent adoptions are permitted only when
the second parent is legally married to the biological
mother or father of the child. Same-sex couples are
not allowed marry in Kentucky due to the state's
constitutional amendment, and the court of appeals decision
said a family court judge and lawyers for a lesbian couple
had ignored that law in allowing a stepparent adoption
for a member of that couple in 2005.
"It is not this
or any court's role to judge whether the legislature's
prohibition of same-sex marriage ... is morally defensible
or socially enlightened," Judge Glenn Acree of Lexington
wrote, according to the Courier-Journal. "Nor
is it this or any court's role ... to craft any means
by which the legal consequences of such a prohibition
may be negated or avoided." (The Advocate)
