A Lancaster County state judge has ruled that a case challenging Nebraska‘s ban on gay parents adopting or fostering children can move forward. In 1995, the director of the Nebraska Department of Social Services, Mary Dean Harvey, issued a policy memorandum mandating that “people who identify themselves as homosexuals” or even “unrelated, unmarried adults residing together” were banned from fostering children or adopting them.Â
That policy was never codified into law, even though Nebraska has a ban on same-sex marriage. It also, reportedly, has been enforced at different times to varying degrees.
The State of Nebraska had attempted to have the case thrown out of court.
Noting that there currently are “3,854 kids in the Nebraska foster care system,” the ACLU of Nebraska writes:
At the heart of the case are Greg and Stillman Stewart, who have been together for over 30 years and are parents to five children that they adopted out of the California foster care system. Most of the kids came to them after suffering years of abuse and multiple foster home placements. When one of their children first came to live with them, at five years old, he was still in diapers and didn’t know how to use utensils. By 17, he brought home a report card with all As and one B. Another child, who had been through 17 foster home placements and three failed adoptions in three different states, is now a college sophomore.
The whole family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2011, when Greg, a minister, took a position with a church there. As their kids have grown and some have moved out of the house, Greg and Stillman realized they wanted to open their home to more children in need. Yet when they applied for a Nebraska foster parent license, they were turned away because they’re gay men.
Nebraska, Utah, and Mississippi, are the only states left with bans on same-sex couples adopting children, although some states, like Michigan, refuse to allow same-sex couples to jointly adopt their children.Â
Hat tip:Â Lincoln Journal StarÂ
Image via ACLU