GAY COUPLES FACE ADOPTION HURDLES: From the Houston Chronicle

...[A] month before, Parker wasn't sure she would be allowed to adopt the girls, who had been in and out of foster care for years. On the day the adoptions were to be finalized, Parker said, the juvenile judge refused to allow anyone in his court to preside over them. Children's Protective Services had already approved placing the girls with the lesbian couple.

"(The judge) didn't think gays should adopt and that I ought to find another judge," Parker said. She did.

Whether other openly gay Harris County residents have gone through a similar experience is difficult to gauge because adoption records are sealed. But while Texas law neither prohibits nor protects homosexual adoption--leaving the matter to local courts--gay rights activists say juvenile judges here have interpreted the law conservatively, giving the perception they discriminate against gays and lesbians.

"Gays and lesbians have to jump through more hoops than heterosexuals, despite no proven scientific study that says (they) have any negative consequence on children," said Randall Ellis, executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas.

Opponents of gay adoption say homosexuals are incorrectly portraying the legitimate concerns of judges as discrimination.

"We exercise judgments in being concerned about giving adoptive children to single (heterosexual) parents for the same reason we do for gays," said S. Michael Craven with the Dallas-based National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. ...

Schumacher and Miller, 44, an engineer who manages space-walking operations for a NASA contractor, have lived together for 16 years. Their openness may have worked against them, said Connie Moore, a Houston family lawyer.

She encourages her gay and lesbian clients to not disclose their orientation in Harris County Juvenile Court or adopt in cities like San Antonio and Austin. When Schumacher and Hubbard take their turn to adopt, in a process known as second-parent adoption, each plans to go outside of Harris County.

Gays and lesbians who adopt local foster children, however, must work through Harris County's juvenile court.

Victor Flatt, a University of Houston family law professor, said Miller's account of his experience in Ellis' court shows some possible violations of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct. The code states, in part, that: "A judge shall not, in the performance of judicial duties, by words or conduct manifest bias or prejudice, including but not limited to bias or prejudice based upon race, sex, religion . . . sexual orientation." ...

Flatt and other experts also say such treatment of gay adoptive parents walks a fine line between judicial discretion and discrimination yet to be tested in Texas' appeals courts or settled in the Legislature.

"They're sort of indirectly doing what they can't do directly," said Flatt.

Texas lawmakers have tried to ban homosexuals and same-sex couples from adopting or serving as foster parents. In recent Texas legislative sessions, the proposals never left committee. Florida is the only state that bans gay adoption; Mississippi and Utah prevent same-sex couples from adopting children but allow single gays or lesbians to adopt.

Richard Carlson, a South Texas College of Law professor, said gay adoption is so complicated because homosexuality is an issue "so laden with personal values."

"We discriminate all the time in deciding what makes a good parent," he said. "Can there be a rational basis for discrimination on the extent of sexual orientation? That's something not even the Supreme Court is ready to tackle."

Carlson also said local judges have not actually denied gay adoptions, because "such a denial would set up an opportunity for an appeal and ultimately a ruling." And in the past, appeals courts and other state supreme courts have tended to side with homosexual parents.

"You have to look at the U.S. and Texas Constitutions," Carlson said. "Regardless of the case law or statutes. You must grant equal protection under the law."

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