Georgia's State Supreme Court will not hear an appeal to a decision granting child-custody rights to a lesbian's former partner.
The case involves a woman allowed to adopt her same-sex partner's biological child. When the relationship dissolved two years later, a custody battle ensued. Georgia state law did not provide answers, so a lower court allowed the adoption to stand.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said gay-advocacy groups are celebrating the state's lack of clarity surrounding the issue.
"They got their foot in the door with the original adoption decree," he said, "and they figure that once they get that foot in the door it’s easy to keep marching forward."
The Legislature should bear the brunt of responsibility for clarifying current adoption law, Hausknecht said, not the court.
