A Fayette County family court judge calls it “very common” for same-sex couples to adopt children in Lexington.
Judge Lucinda Masterton’s comments come following a recent decision by a southern Kentucky judge not to hear such adoption cases.
The 10-year family court judge says finding foster care or adoptive homes is difficult, especially for hard-to-place children.
Masterton says same-sex-couples are a “saving grace.” She hears typically about ten adoption cases a month. When asked how many involve gay parents, the judge says “a lot.”
“In our area of the state, if we didn’t have same sex couples willing to be foster parents and adoptive parents, especially for older children, we would be in serious trouble,” said Masterton.
Judge Tim Philpot is the most veteran family court judge in Lexington. Philpot says he’s been able to separate his personal moral views from what he feels the law requires.
Philpot says he respects Metcalfe-Barren Family Court Judge Mitchell Nance in his decision to remove himself from same-sex adoptions, saying “If a judge has a personal bias, as the judge in Barren County indicated that he had, and he does not think that he can be fair in the situation, that judge should always have the right to recuse from a case where his personal bias makes it impossible in his mind to make that decision."
Philpot says another judge in that judicial district will take up those adoptions.
