http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=50263
While Michigan’s Ninth Annual Adoption Day on Nov. 22 is something to celebrate, many families that want to adopt are feeling left out.
“Hundreds of children across the state have the legal protection of only one of their two parents, simply because not a single judge in Michigan is routinely granting second-parent adoptions. And children are sadly put into this position in the first place because same-sex couples are not able to jointly adopt children in Michigan,” says Kathleen LaTosch, special projects consultant at Affirmations Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale.
Second-parent adoption means that “two unmarried persons (could) petition to adopt a child,” according to the original language in HB-4131. The bill, introduced into the House in February 2009, would have allowed same-sex couples, who are not allowed to marry in Michigan, to become legal parents if the bill passed.