Maricopa County reverses its anti-gay policy for adoptions

Maricopa County is reversing a fiveyear policy rooted in opposition to adoptions by same-sex couples.

Parents in so-called uncontested adoptions are entitled to free legal representation, but Maricopa County has for years used an outside legal firm to handle those services.

County Attorney Allister Adel said Thursday that she is bringing that legal work back to her office. The move, she estimated, will save the county’s general fund $750,000 a year.

“Once we realized how much money we were saving not only for taxpayers,

but getting children out of the system and into loving homes, this was something we absolutely had to do,” Adel said.

The move is an about-face from the practice former County Attorney Bill Montgomery instituted in 2015, in the wake of a state law that legalized gay marriage.

Montgomery contended that gay parents were not eligible for the free legal services his office, by state statute, was required to provide. The move was prompted by a request from a lesbian couple to use the office’s services.

But after pushback from the ACLU of Arizona, and after Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed a bill that would have allowed county attorneys to deny services to adoptive couples, Montgomery opted to move adoption work involving uncontested adoptions to outside firms.

While adoptive parents still got the free service, gay-rights activists said the move made it harder for anyone to get connected to the proper attorneys.

In an uncontested adoption, essentially, no one objects. These cases include adoptions by stepparents or other relatives, those arranged by agencies and foreign adoptions.

Unlike Montgomery, Adel said she had no qualms about her office resuming work on adoptions where all parties are in agreement.

“Gay marriage, that’s old news,” she said. “If a gay couple wants to adopt under this, they can.”

Cost savings, broader reach

Groups that opposed Montgomery’s policy move applauded Adel’s decision.

“This is a big step forward,” said attorney Claudia Work, who has handled private adoptions. “It’s making it easier for people to give permanency to adoptable children.”

That’s because the Montgomery policy made it hard for would-be adoptive parents to find the needed contact information.

“It went deep underground,” she said, buried on the office’s website.

“I could not even find the number to call to get referred to one of these outside, third-party vendors,” she said.

Victoria Lopez, advocacy and legal affairs director for the ACLU of Arizona, said the move to in-house services should increase oversight and accountability. Government should not outsource its constitutional duties, she said.

Lopez called the estimated savings “astounding,” especially considering the Montgomery policy ran for five years.

But Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, said the policy change is regrettable.

“This policy, and Adel’s statement, mean it no longer matters if children have a mom and a dad,” Herrod said.

Herrod has long claimed social science shows kids do best when they’re at home with a married mom and dad — though studies of married parents often compare them to single parents, not same-sex parents.

Supporting an adoption by a gay couple could deprive a child the ability to be adopted by a straight couple, she said.

She also questioned the amount of savings, adding that by their nature, uncontested adoption procedures don’t run up big legal bills.

First case already scheduled

Adel said an efficiency review by her office reached the $750,000 figure after cancelling the $1 million outside legal contract and reserving some of that money to beef up its adoption unit.

Her staff is adding information on the adoption services to its website, giving it more prominence.

Already, she said, her staff is at work. The first uncontested adoption handled by a deputy county attorney is scheduled for Aug. 6, she said.

How to get help

The County Attorney’s Office is still working to add adoption-service information to its website. Meanwhile, anyone seeking information can call 602372-5437.

About this report

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