The attorney mentioned in this article, Michelle Zavos, has been my friend and colleague for 30 years. We both wish our clients’ families were secure without second-parent adoptions – and someday they will be – just not yet. Please read, and listen, to the NPR piece.
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/22/551814731/same-sex-spouses-turn-to-adoption-to-protect-parental-rights
“One thing happening around the country that I think is actually quite exciting is that parentage would be based on intent,” she says. “For example, we have this statute in D.C. that says if both people intend to raise the child, they’re both legal parents, biology notwithstanding. When we start moving toward intent, and getting away from biology, then we will have circumstances that everybody will fit into.”
But many states haven’t weighed in yet on whether or not intent is enough to establish parental rights for same sex couples. For now, Zavos says, second parent adoption remains the best way to ensure two women who are married can both claim to be the legal parents of their children.