hunter of justice

Out in Carolina politics: an interview with NC State Senator Julia Boseman

Julia Boseman, North Carolina's only out state senator, was the solitary holdout who voted no on the resolution honoring Sen. Jesse Helms after he died last year. She is also the successful plaintiff in a custody case, in which the North Carolina Court of Appeals accepted the validity of a second-parent adoption. What absolutely boggles my mind is that if I still lived in the very conservative town where I grew up, she would be my state senator.

Durham Indy interview conducted by Steven Petrow:     

In sitting down with the Indy recently at her Wilmington home, Boseman, a 43-year-old Democrat from New Hanover County, spoke frankly and movingly about [a number of issues].

For Boseman (and North Carolina's LGBT community), it's been, as she says, a "really good year," one where she successfully led the fight as primary sponsor of the School Violence Prevention Act (known informally as the anti-bullying bill), which specifically protects LGBT kids and marks the first time that sexual orientation and gender identity are included in North Carolina law. The year also marked the passage of the Healthy Youth Act, which provides young people with life-saving information about STDs as part of a comprehensive sex education program that teaches more than just abstinence....

Indy: When you first ran for office, were you out as a lesbian?

Sen. Boseman: Yes!

How much do you think your sexual identity has been a driver in your political life?

I have to say it's much easier with the whole world knowing that you're gay. I can remember when I ran in 2000 for county commissioner, I had a choice: I can either be closeted or I can run as an openly gay candidate. If I run as an out gay person, I take away the biggest bombshell that they can use against me. There was a lot of interest in my race at that time—especially my first Senate race [in 2004]—because there have only been a handful of openly gay elected officials in North Carolina. So people from around the country had concerns.

[In the end], I made a conscious decision to run as an out lesbian. I have to say it was a little unnerving when the media went through my campaign reports and they found out I got support from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. They came into my office with the cameras running, saying, "You're a lesbian. You're openly gay."

"Yes, I am. I am going to be honest with the people about who I am, just as I will be about honest with them about the issues that affect them."

So what's it like to be the lesbian, the only out state senator, the poster child for being an elected dyke here in North Carolina?

I never really think of it like that. People automatically assume things about you because you're gay—like you're going to raise taxes through the roof because you're liberal. You want everything that's considered liberal. Actually, we care about all the same things as other people—getting a good education, roads, where's the guy who's picking up my trash.

What advice do you have for other LGBT folks who are thinking about politics and public service?

You better have a really thick skin. You better want it real bad. You need to work hard. Don't get distracted from the light at the end of the tunnel.

Safer schools in North Carolina

Since one of the first posts on this blog, a little more than a year ago, was about the failure of the North Carolina legislature to pass an anti-bullying bill because it would protect gay and transgender kids, I thought it only fair to note that this year, the legislature got the job done. 

The NC School Violence Prevention Act was signed into law by the Governor on June 30. It requires each local school district to adopt, publicize and enforce explicit anti-bullying policies. The new law squeaked by in both houses of the state legislature: by votes of 26 to 22 in the state senate and 63 to 51 in the house.

The act is the first state-wide law in NC to protect against any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and the first state-wide law in any southern state to protect against gender identity discrimination. Congrats to Equality NC!

NC judges under attack for second-parent adoptions

HT to Nancy Polikoff for alerting me to the following story from the News & Observer about the backlash against progressive North Carolina judges, whose willingness to grant second-parent adoptions became publicly visible in the wake of such an adoption being upheld in the Boseman case. This will be a state to watch as conservative groups seek opportunities to enact anti-gay laws.

Hundreds of gay couples in North Carolina have turned to judges in Orange and Durham counties to give them what most courts won't: the legal right to be a parent to their partner's child. The discreet and little-known practice came to light this week in a state Court of Appeals ruling on a custody battle between a biological mother and her estranged partner, a state senator. Now that the practice has been exposed, some lawmakers and legal experts say the adoptions should stop.

The judges who granted them say they're more confident and committed than ever to extending parental rights to unmarried partners. "These are nothing but good situations, nothing but harmony and hope and a desire to care for a child," said Pat DeVine, a recently retired Orange County District Court judge who works as a substitute judge. "It's 2009, and we have situations we didn't have 20 years ago. The polar star is what's in the best interest of the child."...

"Everyone wishes there's a mother and a father and a happy family, but the truth is that our families are not like that," said Marcia Morey, Durham County District Court judge who granted Boseman's adoption in 2005. "Families come to us for answers, and we will give them based on the best interest of the child."

Such adoptions became commonplace in Durham County in 2002. Sharon Thompson, a Durham family lawyer and a former state representative, asked her county clerk of courts and local judges to consider what she had seen a few other states do: waiving the requirement that a parent forfeit rights before another can adopt.

Thompson said that citizens can waive legal rights. She argued that surrendering legal parenthood before an adoption is a benefit and protection for the parent who wishes to give up the child. Therefore, she argued, the surrender is a right that can be waived.

"I certainly didn't invent the concept," said Thompson, who has handled hundreds of these adoptions in Durham and Orange counties. "It's not widely used, but it's legally sound." Parents from across the state have hired Thompson to secure a second-parent adoption. She said that she's presented these cases in her home county of Durham and also had success in neighboring Orange County....

"If people fault me for going to Durham County, the fault is with counties that refuse to follow the law and deny adoptions simply because someone is gay," she said.

Adoption law experts say Thompson's method isn't valid. Even the Court of Appeals gently criticized the process in its ruling this week. Cheryl Howell, a family law expert at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Government who trains district court judges, said it's a mistake for judges to view the Court of Appeals ruling as a validation of second-parent adoptions. "The statute doesn't allow for second-parent adoptions," Howell said. "I stand firm on that." ...

"The effect of this is that adoption policy can now be set by our district court judges," said state Rep. Paul Stam, a Wake County Republican and a lawyer. "All people have to do now is find one district court judge who will do what they want. That's the lowest common denominator adoption policy."

State Sen. Jim Forrester, a Gaston County Republican, said it might be time for legislators to explicitly tell judges what kind of families can adopt children. Judges, who are elected, have broad discretion to interpret and rule on laws. This often leads to very different decisions rendered in similar cases across the state. ...