Gay couples challenge adoption law

September 16, 2004
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Three homosexual couples filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn a law that prohibits Oklahoma from recognizing adoptions by same-sex couples from other states and countries.

The lawsuit alleges the measure, which is an amendment to the Oklahoma Adoption Code, "appears to sever legal ties between parents and their children whenever families led by same-gender couples enter the state of Oklahoma."

Gov. Brad Henry signed the law in May. It was drafted by 17 state lawmakers after Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued an opinion in April requiring the state to recognize all adoptions, regardless of the gender of parents.

A gay couple from Washington state, Ed Swaya and Greg Hampel, sought the opinion when they asked for a birth certificate listing both of them as their daughter's parents. The state Health Department had initially refused to list Swaya because he was not the birth mother.

The couple adopted their daughter from an Oklahoma woman. Now they fear they would lose their legal rights as parents if they visited the birth mother.

Swaya and Hampel are two of 10 plaintiffs, including the couples' children.

Spokespeople for the governor's office and the attorney general, both listed as defendants, said they had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.