by the Lesbian & Gay Rights Project

About the author: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is the nation’s oldest and largest civil liberties organization. Its Lesbian & Gay Rights Project, started in 1986, handles litigation and education work on behalf of gays and lesbians.

Most states in the country consider adoption applications on a case-by-case basis and have no blanket ban on adoption by lesbians and gay men. Nevertheless, sometimes judges deny adoption applications either explicitly because a prospective parent is gay, or under circumstances which make it fairly easy to conclude that was the reason (to have any chance of successfully attacking an order which is not explicit, the anti-gay motive has to be pretty obvious).

One way to attack these orders is to say that they are not allowed under state...