THE DESCRIPTION OF GAY AND LESBIAN FAMILIES IN 2ND-PARENT ADOPTION CASES

Lesbians and gay men are turning to the courts to recognize their fami ly relationships. In this article every reported court decision where a lesbian or gay couple has successfully completed a second-parent ado ption is reviewed to analyze the presentation and judicial analysis of the petitioning parties in conjunction with the current debates withi n family theory. Traditional family theorists argue that the contempor ary family is in transition but will always be recognizable as the tra ditional family; postmodern theorists argue that the traditional ''fam ily'' is a fiction. Results from this study indicate that judges in se cond-parent adoption cases rely on a traditional definition and vision of the family in evaluating the gay and lesbian petitioners before th em. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.