COLAGE is pleased to announce that today, Maine's highest court, the Law Court, issued a ruling allowing a lesbian couple to jointly adopt two siblings currently in foster care.

The unanimous ruling opens the door in Maine for other co-parent adoptions by same-sex couples.

The case began in 2001 when children were removed from their home after their biological parents were no longer able to care for them.

The children were placed with Ann Courtney, an attorney, and Marilyn Kirby, a counselor.

The children, identified in court documents only as M who is now 10 and R who is six, had multiple emotional, learning, and developmental problems.

The couple applied to adopt M and R in 2002, and filed adoption petitions in Cumberland County Probate Court in May 2006.

The judge denied their petition, interpreting current Maine adoption law to allow only one unmarried person or a married couple to adopt.

While either of the women could have adopted the children the couple decided they wanted the children to be adopted jointly and appealed.

The appeal reached the Law Court last September and was officially considered in February 2007.

"A joint adoption assures that in the event of either adoptive parent's death, the children's continued relationship with the surviving parent is fixed and certain," the Court said in its
written decision. "A joint adoption also enables the children to be eligible for a variety of public and private benefits…Most importantly, a joint adoption affords the adopted children the love, nurturing, and support of not one, but two parents."

"We're ecstatic," said Courtney. "We love these kids, and their well-being means everything to us. Our daughter and son can now know that we are a family, and we'll always be a family."

COLAGE celebrates the leadership of GLAD who represented the couple in this case and with this case continue to effectively advocate for the rights of the LGBT community in New England.