Lenora Reyes-Petroff blasted Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery on Facebook after his office refused to provide her and her same sex spouse Leticia, with free adoption petition services. Montgomery shot off a Facebook response that set off a fire storm.
Lenora Reyes-Petroff: “Second-parent adoptions require three things: one person in the couple (must) be the biological parent, the couple must be married, and that the other biological parent must have their parental rights severed — Check, check and check. There is nothing to figure out here! You are discriminating against same-sex couples flat out and you know it!”
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery: “My ability to provide legal representation to individuals is specifically limited by Arizona law. So, the specific instances in which any County Attorney can file the petition you are referencing is also limited. The 9th Circuit ruling addressing the issuance of marriage certificates does not, on its face, affect the adoption statutes.”
The Maricopa County Attorney’s program is supposed to assist couples with “uncontested adoptions.” Specifically, the website reads: “All of our legal services are provided free of charge to adoptive parents. The only costs involved would be document and fingerprinting fees.”
Unless they are gay, according to Montgomery.
In a statement he released this week, Montgomery claims that Arizona law does not grant an “absolute right to adopt a child.” Montgomery holds that as a result of the a 1995 case, Adams v. State, 1995), “our adoption statutes should be strictly construed and are distinct from cases arguing a right to marry and recognition of marriages by same-sex couples. Federal district and circuit court rulings have not addressed adoption so as to require any change in the law prior to or in place of action by the Arizona legislature. The requirement for County Attorneys to provide adoption petition services is unique in Arizona law in that it represents a legislative directive to provide legal services to an individual outside of the civil and criminal law duties and responsibilities otherwise set forth by statute. Accordingly, that directive is also strictly interpreted.”
“This office has never provided adoption petition services in same-sex stepparent situations,” continued Montgomery. “Whether we have provided adoption petition services to individuals who are homosexual is unknown since our office does not solicit that information when fulfilling our legal duties and responsibilities under Arizona law.”
“Should a federal court with jurisdiction issue a ruling or the Arizona legislature takes action addressing Arizona’s adoption statutes in these circumstances, we will adjust accordingly just as we did in providing advice on changes to benefits rules for same-sex couples in a legally recognized marriage, said Montgomery. “Until then, it is not my place as a state executive branch official to give greater import to a federal judicial action than what the ruling directly addressed and that supplants the role of a state legislature.”