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The Voice of the Petitioner: The Experiences of Gay and Lesbian Parents in Successful Second-Parent Adoption Proceedings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Catherine Connolly
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Abstract

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Gays and lesbians have recently turned to the courts and the law for recognition of their families. Some of the most successful cases are those won by a gay or lesbian “second-parent” of a child whose biological or legally adoptive parent is his or her partner. The court opinions granting these second-parent adoptions have often portrayed these petitioners as similar to an idealized heterosexual family unit, albeit with two same-sex parents. In this study, 20 parents who successfully pursued a second-parent adoption were interviewed to examine their experiences with the legal system. Results indicate that these petitioners did not envision themselves as similar to heterosexual families and resisted attempts by state actors who tried to formulate them as such. The literature on legal consciousness and pragmatism is used to analyze the respondents' experiences.

Type
Papers of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 36 , Issue 2: Special Issue on Nonbiological Parenting , 2002 , pp. 325 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

A version of this article was presented at the Law and Society Association's Annual Meeting, May 1997, St. Louis, Missouri. I thank Lois Berry for useful comments. Recent drafts of this manuscript received valuable comments from the participants at the University of Wyoming, Women's Studies brown bag lunch series, Dec. 2000.

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