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90 Tul. L. Rev. 311 (2015-2016)

handle is hein.journals/tulr90 and id is 341 raw text is: Adopting the Gay Family Cynthia Godsoe* Scholars and policy makers alike have largely overlooked the significant role adoptive parenthood has played in gay family, and ultimately civic, recognition. States have been in the business of creating gay families for decades through the foster care system. This match of orphans and outlaws has resulted in tens of thousand of loving families, even in the ' ddest states. These families were key 'facts on the groundin the manrage debates. In short, adoption has functioned as a stealth path to mamage equality Drawing on orginal qualitative research, this Article bings to the fore the understudied but critically important trajectory ofgay foster and adoptiveparenthood It argues that a better understanding of tis neglected path challenges two key assumptions underlying the mamage debates and more broadly family regulation. First, it challenges the conventional wisdom that marriage should come before parenthood Recognition of same-sex adoption preceded recognition of same-sex marriage in every state. Second it debunks the argument that current opposition to new family forms is driven by children interests. Marriage myopia kept policy makers 'attention off state-sanctioned parenthood revealing their opposition to gay families to center largely on sexuality or morality This Article theorizes this process of on-the-ground change, highlighting three salient factors parenthoods private nature, its diffuse and apolitical gatekeepers, and the 'stickiness and normalizingpower of extant families. It concludes by arguing that familial and civic recognition does not, and should not, come only from the status of marriage. Indeed recent courts, including the United States Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, have explicitly praised gay adoptive parents when granting same-sex marriage. Recognition thus serves as a necessary state reward for self-sacrificeand model caregiving. I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 313 II. THE UNDERGROUND/ON-THE-GROUND HISTORY OF GAY PARENTHOOD ............................................................................... 319 A. The Conventional Account .......................................... 320 * © 2015 Cynthia Godsoe. Assistant Professor, Brooklyn Law School. The author can be reached at cynthia.godsoe@brooklaw.edu. I am grateful to the movement attorneys I interviewed, including Ellen Hahn, Jenny Pizer, Leslie Cooper, and particularly Mary Bonauto for providing archival materials. I also greatly benefited from comments and suggestions from Annette Appell, Susan Appleton, Miriam Baer, Carlos Ball, Anita Bernstein, Fred Bloom, Josh Bowers, Naomi Cahn, June Carbone, Marsha Garrison, Mary Anne Case, Bill Estrich, Joan Hollinger, Clare Huntington, Courtney Joslin, Jeremy Kessler, Joe Landau, Doug NeJaime, Solangel Maldanodo, Nancy Polikoff, Clifford Rosky, Ed Stein, Nelson Tebbe, Alan Trammel, Michael Wald, Tanya Washington, Deb Widiss, and Jordan Woods, as well as workshop participants at the 2014 AALS Midyear Meeting on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the 2014 Fordham Junior Faculty Colloquium, the 2014 Law and Society Annual Meeting, and the 2013 Brooklyn Law School Junior Faculty Meeting. I am grateful to Gary Gates for answering questions about demographics and Ed Cheng for helping with graphics. Finally, thanks are due to McLean Crichton, Taylor Dougherty, and Kaitlyn Devenyns for incredible research assistance, as well as the staff of the Tulane Law Reviewfor excellent editing.

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