The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that the state's adoption law allows a lesbian or gay partner to adopt the other partner's children.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state's adoption law unequivocally allows a lesbian or gay partner to adopt the other partner's children.

The decision means children in gay and lesbian families could now qualify for health insurance, inheritances and other benefits that they did not get before.
"There is no language in the Adoption Act precluding two unmarried same-sex partners (or unmarried heterosexual partners) from adopting a child who had no legal parents," Chief Justice Stephen Zappala wrote in the ruling.
"It is therefore absurd to prohibit their adoptions merely because their children were either the biological or adopted children of one of the partners prior to the filing of the adoption petition."

The ruling stems from two cases filed by lesbian and gay couples. In the first, one of two women from Lancaster County who have been together since 1983 sought to adopt twin boys born to one of the women through in vitro fertilization.

In the second case, one of two men from Erie County who have been partners since 1982 sought to adopt a boy and a girl who had already been adopted by one partner.
"Today's decision is a complete victory for these families and for hundreds if not thousands of families like them," said Susan Frietsche, a lawyer with the Women's Law Project. "It's a long overdue acknowledgment of lesbian and gay families."

The Women's Law Project was one of 75 organizations that filed "friend of the court" briefs in the case.
"This ruling will provide the opportunity for legal protections for hundreds of children in Pennsylvania that have been in legal limbo for years. Now these children will be able to access the critical legal rights of the parent-child relationship with both of their parents," said Tiffany L. Palmer, legal director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights.

In the UK only married couples can jointly adopt. Where couples are unmarried, in heterosexual, gay or lesbian relationships, only one of the couple can have full legal parental rights to their adopted children.

MP's, and many adoption agencies, are campaigning for the UK law to be changed. The adoption bill is now going through Parliament.