A Los Angeles Newspaper on Louisiana Law

Has the Los Angeles Times ever run an editorial about Louisiana refusing to issue birth certificates to unmarried adoptive couples, bemoaning this practice? Not until that unmarried couple was of the same-sex is my guess. Louisiana will issue such birth certificates to married couples or one person, but not two unmarried people.

The two men adopted their son, who was born in Louisiana, through an agency in New York. Louisiana law requires state officials to issue a new birth certificate for an adopted child that "shall list the names of the adoptive parents." But Louisiana also prohibits adoptions by unmarried couples, whether heterosexual or homosexual. So the state declined to issue a birth certificate with both names.

A federal court ruled in favor of the same-sex couple, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Louisiana.

In the majority opinion, Chief Judge Edith Jones wrote that Louisiana had a "rational preference for stable families." But that argument is undercut by the fact that the state allows adoptions by single adults - just not unmarried couples.

Single adults can provide a stable family by not dating, especially if living with their own married parents. Couples who can get a marriage license, but haven't, are demonstrating a lack of desire for legal stability.

It has practical implications as well - for example, when a parent who isn't listed on the birth certificate wants to enroll the child in a school that requires the document, or to obtain a passport for the child.

So the parent who is on the birth certificate does it.

As I've said before, I'm not against same-sex couples adopting. I just don't think they should get the same consideration for adoption as a bride+groom couple, who should get first preference.