Louisiana Adoption Law
Permits single LGBT individuals to petition to adopt? Yes.
Louisiana law permits a single person or a married couple jointly to petition to adopt. (LA. CHILD. CODE ANN. art.1198)
Permits a same-sex couple to jointly petition to adopt? No explicit prohibition.
State law provides that a husband and wife may jointly petition to adopt, and does not explicitly provide for joint adoption by other couples. No state court has heard the issue of whether same-sex couples can or can not jointly petition to adopt.
Note: In a recent case before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Louisiana Attorney General argued that the state's Department of Vital Statistics cannot be forced to provide a birth certificate listing two men as the parents of a Louisiana-born child adopted by a gay couple in New York. The state legislature reaffirmed the Attorney General’s position.
Permits a same-sex partner to petition to adopt partner’s child or child of the relationship? No explicit prohibition.
There is no explicit prohibition, and some lower courts have allowed second-parent adoptions to proceed. No state court, however, has heard the issue of whether a same-sex partner can or can not petition to adopt a partner’s child or child of the relationship.
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Last Updated: 12/9/2009