Utah Effs Up Again

I get it that Utah isn't the most LGBT friendly state in the union. I mean, the Mormon Church practically runs that state, and we know how they feel about The Gays, after they funneled millions of dollars into the Prop H8 campaign. But, now Utah has decided it knows better about whom should parent children, that the actual parents of said children.

There was a bill out there in the Utah, that would have allowed second-parent adoptions for unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian pairs, but by a 5-1 vote, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee tabled it. It's going nowhere.

This bill would have allowed the legal parent of a child to designate a second, adoptive co-parent, but Utah law, because they seem to think they know better, prohibits anyone in an unmarried, cohabiting relationship from adopting or fostering children. Married couples and single people can adopt, but if you're living in sin, gay or straight, you cannot be a parent.

One woman, Julie Gainer, who is the biological mother of a newborn, told the senators she would like her lesbian partner of 10 years to adopt: "I am an adult yet I cannot appoint a second adult to be a [legal] parent to my child, because I am a single cohabiting person with my partner. I do not have the option to marry her in this state. … My daughter will not have the protections afforded by a second parent if I die."

Sorry, Julie, Utah knows better. They won't let you marry your partner, and now they're telling you your partner cannot be a parent to your child.

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