| Abstract: | There are two broad categories of family court decisions involving same-sex “second-parents”: first, cases where a second-parent is seeking visitation with her former partner's children; and second, adoption cases where the couple is seeking legal recognition of the second-parent's role in raising the children. Several jurisdictions grant same-sex second-parent adoptions; however, lesbian or gay second-parents, without a formal legal relationship with the children have rarely been successful in their attempts for visitation. In this paper the courts' analyses of the legal arguments made by the parties is reviewed. The results indicate that similar arguments are used in each of the different types of cases, but that the courts rely more heavily on statutory interpretation in the adoption cases. |
