Ky. court strikes down lesbian adoption

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The Kentucky Court of Appeals says lesbians cannot be allowed to adopt children as though they are stepparents.

The court handed down a unanimous 3-0 ruling last week in a case in which it said Jefferson County Family Court Judge Eleanore Garber ignored the law by allowing a lesbian couple to adopt under provisions established for new marriage partners of a biological parent, The Louisville Courier-Journal reported Tuesday.

Noting that same-sex marriages are banned in Kentucky, the court wrote in a 62-page opinion that Garber used a "wink-wink" and a "nod-nod" to illegally allow a lesbian couple to adopt a child.

"It is not this or any court's role to judge whether the legislature's prohibition of same-sex marriage … is morally defensible or socially enlightened," Judge Glenn Acree wrote for the court, the newspaper said. "Nor is it this or any court's role … to craft any means by which the legal consequences of such a prohibition may be negated or avoided."