Lawmaker: State adoption preferences still don't recognize gay marriage

PHOENIX — A top House Democrat on Wednesday blasted Republican leaders for refusing to update laws that effectively give preference to heterosexual couples in adopting children — or even agree to debate the issue.

The complaint by Minority Whip Rebecca Rios of Phoenix comes more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court voided laws in Arizona and elsewhere that limit marriage to one man and one woman. And even Gov. Doug Ducey has directed the Department of Child Safety to place children available for adoption in any “loving homes with loving families,” regardless of the sexual orientation of the parents.

Yet Arizona law still allows only “a husband and wife” to jointly adopt children.

That technically means a gay couple, even one now legally married, cannot jointly adopt. That leaves only the option of one of the partners acting as a single adult.

But the law also says that if the choice is between a single person and a married couple, “placement preference shall be with a married man and woman.”

Several House Democrats had introduced HB 2392 to eliminate both provisions. But House Speaker David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, would not even assign it to a committee for a hearing.

So Rios planned to try to amend that to a bill on adoption that had cleared a committee and was ready to go to the floor. She isn’t getting that opportunity, with Gowan refusing to schedule debate.

In a floor speech, Rios blasted the move to bury the issue.

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“If there are folks here who don’t agree with same-sex marriage couples adopting children, then say it,” she chided the Republican leadership.

“Have the courage to have the debate on the House floor,” Rios continued. “Don’t refuse to have the debate because you’re afraid to make those arguments.”

Gowan sidestepped questions about why he has not brought that bill Rios wants to amend to the floor.

Asked whether he would be OK having a debate on the issue, he responded, “I didn’t tell you anything.”

The issue has been percolating since late 2014 when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said laws against same-sex marriage in the states that it covers are unconstitutional. Gay weddings soon followed.

Ducey, who took office in early 2015, revoked what had been the policy of the Department of Child Safety of not allowing gay married couples to adopt or foster children.

That provoked a response from Attorney General Mark Brnovich, also newly elected, who insisted that even if the U.S. Supreme Court voided laws against same sex marriage — something it actually did months later — it did not affect the right of legislators to decide to give preference in adoption to opposite-sex couples.

But Brnovich did not challenge Ducey’s directive at the time. And he declined to comment on the issue late Wednesday.