by Lynn Wardle

About the author: Lynn Wardle is professor of law at Brigham Young University

J. Reuben Clark Law School, and has written extensively on family law issues. The benefits to children in need of adoption of being raised by a mother and father who are married to each other are tremendous. The “marriage factor” in terms of the welfare of children justifies adoption rules that discriminate against nonmarital couples including gay couples and partners.

Some advocates of gay rights assert that it is unconstitutional for states and state adoption agencies to prohibit or restrict adoption by homosexual couples (herein “gay couple adoption”). Most of these claims fall into two categories:
(1) that homosexual couples have a constitutional right or liberty to adopt, or
(2) that refusal to allow...