Senate OKs adoption by same-sex couples

Despite GOP objections, bill expected to clear final hurdles

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 12, 2007 at midnight

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A measure to allow gay couples to adopt won initial Senate approval Wednesday, despite several lawmakers' objections that it advances the "homosexual agenda."

The bill is expected to get final Senate OK within days and head to the governor, who has signaled he will sign it.

"This is a remake of the homosexual agenda," said Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley. "It's not about protecting children. It is an attack on the traditional family. It undermines the traditional marriage structure that we need to keep strong and sacred."

The Senate approved the bill on a party-line voice vote, with Democrats arguing the Second Parent Adoption Bill isn't about promoting the gay agenda, but about protecting children being raised in nontraditional families.

House Bill 1330's sponsor, Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, contends that same-sex couples, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other relatives have a hard time getting government benefits and providing health care coverage to children they're raising because Colorado's adoption law allows only married couples or singles - gay or straight - to adopt.

"This is not about whether you should have a gay marriage," said Veiga, the only openly gay lawmaker in the Colorado legislature. "It recognizes that there are different types of relationships out there. A number of people in those relationships have children, and what we're saying is we're not going to abandon those children."

The measure would allow a child's adopted or birth parent to support adoption by a second parent.

This is the third attempt by Democratic lawmakers to get the bill passed .

Similar measures died previously in Republican-controlled committees. But this year, Democrats have an ally in Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, who has indicated he will sign the measure into law, Veiga said.

"We absolutely need to do more for these types of families," said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver. "What we know about children is they do well when they are loved and cared for unconditionally."

The bill has been condemned by conservative religious groups, including Focus on the Family, who have called it a "thinly disguised effort to legalize adoption by gay couples."

Republican lawmakers said the bill flouts the will of Colorado voters, who last year defeated Referendum I, which would have legalized domestic partnerships and would have allowed gay couples to adopt.

At the same time, the state's voters approved Amendment 43, which added a section to the Colorado Constitution that defines marriage as a union only between one man and one woman.

"I'm appalled . . . that we have the temerity in this body to go against the will of the voters of Colorado," said Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, who noted he has received 650 e-mails in opposition to the bill.

washingtonam@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5086

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