Increasingly, some couples turn to what is called second parent adoption, which permits a same-sex parent to adopt a partner’s biological or adoptive child without terminating the legal rights of the first parent. In a second parent adoption, both the natural parent and the second parent exercise legal guardianship and rights.

State laws and court rulings on second parent adoption vary. Nine states, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont and the District of Colombia have authorized second parent adoptions by appellate court rulings or statute. Trial courts have granted second-parent adoptions in Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington.

In 22 other states, the law remains unclear. They are: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Appellate courts have ruled that the state adoption law does not permit second-parent adoption in Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.