Gay couple settle adoption lawsuit
A Californian couple has settled a lawsuit against Adoption.com, an Arizona-based website that refused to let them post a profile in the hopes of finding a birth mother.
As part of the settlement, the site’s owners agreed to stop doing business with California residents.
According to the Associated Press, the company could have kept doing business in the state if they had been willing to let same-sex couples participate, but they were not.
News of the settlement came six weeks after a federal judge cleared the way for the couple’s suit to go to trial by ruling that California’s anti-discrimination laws applied to the Arizona-based Adoption Media, which runs both Adoption.com and Parent-Profiles.com.
Michael and Rich Butler, who brought the lawsuit against Adoption Media’s owners Nathan and Dale Gwilliam in 2003, welcomed Tuesday’s ruling.
“We’re thrilled that we accomplished what we set out to do,” Rich Butler told the Associated Press earlier this week.
“California wins because we stopped a company that doesn’t want to obey California law.”
The story has multiple happy endings for the Butlers: After they were rejected by Adoption.com, the couple, who have been together for more than a decade, turned to an adoption agency to adopt daughter Emily, who is now 3 years old.
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