Arkansas Court Clears Way for Gay Adoptions

The Arkansas Supreme Court today rejected a voter-approved initiative that barred gay couples and other unmarried people living together from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Associate Justice Robert L. Brown wrote for the court that the law would encroach on adults' right to privacy in the bedroom. "Act 1 directly and substantially burdens the privacy rights of `opposite-sex and same-sex individuals' who engage in private, consensual sexual conduct in the bedroom by foreclosing their eligibility to foster or adopt children," Brown wrote.

The law effectively banned gay and lesbian couples from adopting or fostering children because they can't legally marry in Arkansas. It would have been extended to unmarried heterosexual couples who live together. Voters approved the measure in 2008 after the state Supreme Court overturned a Human Services Department policy preventing gay men and lesbians from serving as foster parents in 2006. The ACLU sued on behalf of a group of families. (More Arkansas stories.)