{"id":22669,"date":"2015-05-21T10:09:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T10:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=22669"},"modified":"2015-05-21T12:09:47","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T12:09:47","slug":"vi-supreme-court-rejects-superior-courts-decision-to-deny-same-sex-couple-adoption-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=22669","title":{"rendered":"VI Supreme Court Rejects Superior Court&#8217;s Decision To Deny Same-Sex Couple Adoption Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. CROIX &#8212; The Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands, in an opinion published on Wednesday, rejected a decision by the Superior Court to deny adoption rights to a same-sex couple living on the island, after the High Court carefully reviewed the decision and concluded that the Superior Court erred\u00a0in denying the appellants\u2019 petition for second-parent adoption, because, &#8220;regardless of whether their marriage is recognized in the Virgin Islands, 16 V.I.C. \u00a7 141 broadly provides that \u201cany inhabitant of the Virgin Islands\u201d may petition for an adoption.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The same-sex couple, who got married in Canada in 2007, has raised the children here from birth, according to information provided in the court&#8217;s opinion, and the children\u2019s biological fathers are anonymous sperm donors who \u201cknowingly, intentionally, and effectively waived all parental rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because same-sex marriage is illegal in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the couple petitioned for adoption &#8220;in the best interest of the children,&#8221; arguing that there&#8217;s no provision in Virgin Islands Code that forbids the Superior Court from granting the petition. But the Superior Court disagreed and denied the adoption petition on September 18, 2013, opining that\u00a0because the petitioners \u201cfiled together as spouses\u201d under \u201ca limited \u2018spousal\u2019 or \u2018stepparent\u2019\u201d provision in the adoption statutes, and the Virgin Islands Code limits marriage to opposite-sex couples, it could not grant the adoption.<\/p>\n<p>The same-sex couple did not relent, filing a move for reconsideration that was again denied by the Superior Court, which stated that it&#8217;s decision was based solely on its interpretation of the law, and not because it held any animosity against the petitioners or their marital status.<\/p>\n<p>The same-sex couple then filed a motion of appeal with the Supreme Court, which has agreed to reopen the case for its consideration, &#8220;because the Superior Court misinterpreted the adoption statutes in denying the petition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The highest court of the land added that\u00a0&#8220;even though the adoption statutes do not provide any exceptions to the operation of 16 V.I.C. \u00a7 146(b)\u2014providing that an adoption decree terminates \u201call legal rights [of the natural parents] as respects the child\u201d\u2014a strict application of this provision would preclude any stepparent or second parent adoptions in the Virgin Islands and undermine the Legislature\u2019s directive that the best interests of the child must be paramount in adoption proceedings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read the full opinion <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/In-the-matter-of-adoption.pdf\">here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Feature Image Credit: Huffington Post\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. CROIX &#8212; The Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands, in an opinion published on Wednesday, rejected a decision by the Superior Court to deny adoption rights to a same-sex couple living on the island, after the High Court carefully reviewed the decision and concluded that the Superior Court erred\u00a0in denying the appellants\u2019 petition for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,11,191,147],"tags":[2032,2033],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VI Supreme Court Rejects Superior Court&#039;s Decision To Deny Same-Sex Couple Adoption Rights - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ST. CROIX -- The Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands has rejected a decision by the Superior Court to deny adoption rights to a same-sex couple...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=22669\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=22669\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=22669\",\"name\":\"VI Supreme Court Rejects Superior Court's Decision To Deny Same-Sex Couple Adoption Rights - V.I. 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I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VI Supreme Court Rejects Superior Court's Decision To Deny Same-Sex Couple Adoption Rights - V.I. Consortium","description":"ST. 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