Panel OKs Bill That Would Let Gay Couples Adopt

Assembly committees dominated by Democrats approved gay rights legislation on three fronts Wednesday, including a measure to allow same-sex couples to adopt children--a direct conflict with regulations proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Other bills approved would grant limited rights to unmarried domestic partners, whether homosexual or heterosexual, and strengthen prohibitions on discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation.

The three bills are likely to reach the Assembly floor later in the session, where their fate is uncertain.

The adoption measure, (AB 53) by Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), would undo regulations being prepared by Wilson to primarily limit adoptive parents to married couples.

Murray said he was pushing his bill because “it is important to raise the issue,” despite a likely veto upon arriving at Wilson’s desk. Wilson’s office said it was too early for the governor to take a position on the measure.

Besides the barrier Wilson’s order would place for gay and lesbian couples who wish to adopt children, the governor’s “policy would in reality adversely affect thousands of California’s children who could be adopted by single parents [or] by those who choose not to marry for whatever reasons,” Murray said.

In particular, he argued, limitations on adoption hurt minority children and those with “special needs”--such as children who are older than 5, victims of neglect or children with emotional problems. Those children, he argued, are least likely to be adopted now and often languish in foster care for lack of adoptive parents.

The bill provides that a person who otherwise meets a child’s needs may not be prevented from adoption solely on the basis of his or her marital status. It would allow adoptions by people who are single, as well as gay couples and unmarried heterosexual couples.

The governor, however, has always felt strongly that “all children should be brought up in a home where parents have a long-term commitment and the sanctity of marriage,” said Janice Ploeger Glaab, a spokeswoman for the state Health and Welfare Agency.

Last July, Wilson proposed new regulations that would direct social workers to recommend to judges that adoptions by parents who are not married are “not in the best interest of the child.” But Glaab added that Wilson’s proposal would not necessarily bar adoptions by single parents.

The approval came after heated debate.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), who is one of two openly lesbian members in the Legislature, argued that it is unfair for society to forbid gays and lesbians to marry, then tell them they don’t have stable enough relationships to adopt.

“I would match my experience in my community to the experience of the heterosexual community any day,” she said.

The domestic partners bill (AB 54), also by Murray, was passed by a vote of 10 to 3 in the Judiciary Committee and represents, Murray said, an effort to reverse long-standing neglect of “thousands of nontraditional families in this state.”

Besides gay and lesbian couples, beneficiaries would be many seniors and people who are disabled “and cannot afford to jeopardize their disability benefits by marrying.”

Under the bill, a statewide registry would be set up for couples who are not man and wife providing hospital visitation rights and the ability of a surviving mate to inherit property.

Wilson vetoed a similar bill in 1994.

The third related bill, (AB 257) by Assembly Majority Leader Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) passed on a party line vote, 7 to 5, in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

Seeking to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing and on the job, the bill streamlines and removes loopholes from similar laws already on the books.

“I didn’t try to lobby anybody” to achieve passage, Villaraigosa said. “I thought the merits spoke for themselves.”

All three bills received support from gay rights groups. The adoption bill also was supported by adoption and social worker organizations.

But the measures came under a withering attack by the Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition.

The gay rights bills are all part of a deliberate “homosexual agenda,” which if not stopped “will destroy our nation and our civilization,” Sheldon said in an interview. He noted that he is opposed to the other two bills as well as the adoption legislation.

The gay agenda, Sheldon asserted, begins in the schools and seeks to “overhaul straight America and remove the man/woman relationship from center stage” all in the name of “the sexual orientation factor.”