Sep 17, 2004   | COMMENTS     

The Virginia Supreme Court this week announced that it would review the decision of a lower court prohibiting three same-sex couples from listing both partners’ names on the birth certificates of their adopted children. While the high court did not indicate whether it would strike down a Richmond judge’s ruling that upheld the right of the Virginia Department of Public Records to refuse to issue the couples new birth certificates, Michele Zavos, an attorney for one of the couples, hailed the declaration. “This is about Virginia recognizing court rulings in other states and giving full-faith and credit to these adoptions,” Zavos said. The Supreme Court has not yet determined a date for its ruling. Ordinarily, the Department of Public Records automatically honors petitions made by adoptive parents to substitute their names for those of the birth parents. But in the case of gay parents Scott Davenport and Timothy Fisher — a Washington, D.C. couple named in the lawsuit — the department refused, despite a D.C. Superior Court’s decision four years ago awarding them official adoption decrees for both of their children, who were born in Virginia. Richmond Circuit Judge Randall G. Johnson then ruled in early February that requiring the state to list the names of the children’s adoptive parents on new certificates directly conflicts with Virginia’s policy prohibiting joint adoption by unmarried couples. The ACLU lawsuit has charged that the department’s action and Johnson’s decision violates not only the Full Faith & Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, but also the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Virginia is the last state to prohibit out-of-state, same-sex adoptive parents from having both names on a birth certificate, activists said. Other traditionally conservative states, such as North Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi, recently amended their statutes with regard to these types of requisitions. A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 90 percent of the population agrees that children who are raised by same-sex couples should have all the same rights and entitlements as other children.
ADRIAN BRUNE

Organizers of Bush fund-raiser reportedly walk out on Helix bill
Managers and employees of the trendy D.C. nightspot Helix lounge, are feeling a hangover from a Bush-Cheney campaign party held there on July 15, after its gay hosts reportedly walked out on their tab. The “Party for the President” — a grassroots initiative of the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign to raise money and enlist supporters — held by Armando Cortinez and his partner, Tom Duschney, drew only about 15 patrons. But the number still qualified partygoers to participate in a nationwide conference call with First Lady Laura Bush for which Cortinez reserved a conference room. After sipping $7 Bushtinis in the front bar adorned with Bush-Cheney signs, partygoers adjourned to the room to listen to the First Lady. As the event concluded, manager Kobie Ali said, the staff presented the couple with a $205 bill. Duschney and Cortinez disappeared after they told Ali they needed to get their checkbook, he claimed. “I was floored. I couldn’t believe it,” Ali said. “Then, when I tried to run the credit card they had used for deposit, it was declined.” Duschney, a contractor for that National Institutes of Health, told the Hill newspaper that the couple disputed the room-rental fee. He claimed the staff wanted to besmirch the couple over what some gay people see as hypocritical political beliefs. A hotel representative said attempts to contact the couple have risen to the double digits. The Helix has yet to receive an explanation, the source said. “We’re not going to discriminate on the basis of politics, but the next week we hosted a fund-raiser for John Kerry that went off without a hitch,” the representative said.
ADRIAN BRUNE

Pro-gay Prince George’s candidate wins election
William Campos, the Latino liaison to Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson, won the special District 2 County Council election Tuesday by a landslide. Campos has won praise from some area gay residents who note that he has publicly promised to support equal rights for gays, including domestic partnership benefits for county employees. One of his defeated opponents in the race, Hyattsville City Councilmember Chris Currie (Ward 1), was the lone dissenter in early June when the Hyattsville Council voted 9-1 in favor of domestic partner benefits. Prince George’s County does not offer domestic ...