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Couples challenge Mississippi’s ban on gay adoption
Four lesbian couples on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to challenge Mississippi’s 15-year ban on gay couples to adopt or take children into foster care.
Backed by the Campaign for Southern Equality and the Family Equality Council, the suit alleges that the ban is unconstitutional given that the US Supreme Court has legalized gay marriage and legal benefits for gay couples nationwide.
The couples say the ban doesn’t put child welfare first and discriminates against same-sex couples who face risks because both parents don’t have legal status, according to an AP report.
‘The Mississippi adoption ban is an outdated relic of a time when courts and legislatures believed that it was somehow OK to discriminate against gay people simply because they are gay,’ reads the suit.
Republican Governor Phil Bryant said in a statement he still supports the ban and hopes for the attorney general to ‘vigorously defend the State of Mississippi against this lawsuit.’
Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat facing a tough re-election challenge, says his office was still examining the lawsuit.
Mississippi is the last state to ban adoptions by same-sex couples.
The law was implemented in 2000 and signed by then governor Ronnie Musgrove who later said in 2013 he regrets the decision.
‘The more I read the (US) Constitution, the clearer it became that you just can’t deny rights to a specific class of people just because some are uncomfortable with what they do not understand,’ said the attorney who is Southern Baptist and has been a deacon.
Lawmakers in Florida and Michigan reversed similar bans earlier this year while courts in Louisiana and Nebraska struck down rules or laws in those states.
The post Couples challenge Mississippi’s ban on gay adoption appeared first on Gay Star News.
Sylvia Tan
www.gaystarnews.com/article/couples-challenge-mississippis-ban-on-gay-adoption/
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