Gay Couple Wins Court Battle to Adopt Boy, 4

A gay couple has been allowed to adopt a 4-year-old boy, ending a custody struggle with the boy’s mother, who gave him away and then tried to get him back.

Ross and Luis Lopton, who had been the boy’s foster parents, and a King County Superior Court commissioner signed the adoption papers Friday.

“I’m living here forever,” the boy, Gailen, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He calls Ross “Daddy” and Luis “Papa.”

Gailen was placed with the Loptons in September, 1993, a year after his mother, Megan Lucas, surrendered her parental rights.

When she learned that Gailen had been placed with a gay couple, Lucas tried to rescind her decision. But a Superior Court judge rejected the request because it was filed a day too late under state law.

Lucas, who bore Gailen as an unwed teen-ager, then tried to adopt him, but the courts rejected that attempt too. State officials also cited her history of drug and alcohol abuse and a criminal record dating from age 11.

In September, a five-judge panel of the state Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal.

Washington is one of six states that permits adoptions by gay couples. Six states have outlawed adoptions by same-sex couples.

The Loptons, who are bankers, spent four years in training and counseling to become foster--and then adoptive--parents.