Ruling Backs Partners’ Adoptions

ALBANY, N.Y. — In a ruling hailed by gay rights advocates, New York’s highest court declared Thursday that unmarried people--gay or heterosexual--have a right to adopt their partners’ children.

Since state laws recognize that single adults can adopt, regardless of sexual orientation, the right must also be extended to partners in gay or heterosexual relationships, the Court of Appeals decided in a narrow, 4-3 vote.

“To rule otherwise would mean that the thousands of New York children actually being raised in homes headed by two unmarried persons could have only one legal parent, not the two who want them,” Chief Judge Judith Kaye wrote.

New York becomes the third state after Vermont and Massachusetts whose highest court has recognized the right of a person in a homosexual relationship to adopt the other partner’s child, said Suzanne Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the gay rights group Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. The top court for the District of Columbia has also legalized such adoptions.