Utah judge refuses to approve a child adoption by a same-sex, legally married couple

Utah Judge Scott Johansen refused to allow April Hoagland and Beckie Pierce to adopt the baby they have taken care of as foster parents for three months, even though they are legally married, have passed the background checks, home visits, and interviews that led to approval as adoptive parents by the Department of Family and Children's Services.

In addition they have the approval of the baby's biological mother and the recommendation of the foster care case worker.  Add to all those qualifications the fact that there are currently 2600 children in foster care in Utah that need adoption.

But Judge Johansen (who has a reputation for controversial decisions and has received a reprimand from the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission in an unrelated case) thinks he knows better, citing unspecified "research" that he says show that children reared by same-sex parents do not do as well as children who are reared by heterosexual parents.

This is not acceptable in 2015.   It can only be attributed to the judge's prejudice against same-sex couples, because there is no such evidence that stands up to scientific scrutiny.  Judge Johansen declined to give references for his claim, but it is well-established by objective scholars that any such "studies" have been debunked for having seriously flawed methodology.

None of those reports cited by conservatives compare children raised in stable, same-sex married families with stable, opposite-sex married families.   Instead, those debunked studies often compare apples and oranges.   One early and often cited study compared children from broken marriages, who were then raised by a single parent, with children raised by a stable heterosexual married couple.   They then claimed that children do better in a home "with a mother and a father" -- but they completely ignored the effects of a broken marriage and its aftermath as a source of adjustment problems in some children.

In contrast and more recently, there are valid studies that compare oranges and oranges, i.e. children raised by couples in stable relationships, where the only significant variable was same-sex vs opposite-sex parents.    In these, the adjustment of children of same-sex parents is either equal to or, in some cases, better than that of children of opposite-sex partners.

Think about this as a positive factor:   There are no accidental pregnancies or unwanted children in same-sex marriages.    Gay couples have to really want a child and work harder to make it happen.   Consequently, they often make better parents.

Ralph