title:  Federal Judge Rules Same-Sex Couples Can Adopt Children In All Fifty States
text: On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan ruled Mississippi s discriminatory ban on allowing same-sex couples to adopt children is unconstitutional.The ruling is a victory for LGBT rights, as several GOP-controlled states have led legislative efforts to discriminate against the LGBT community. North Carolina Democrats recently walked out of the Capitol after Republicans passed a discriminatory law banning towns and cities from protecting the rights of LGBT individuals, and Georgia nearly passed a faith-based discrimination law against the LGBT community until Georgia Governor Nathan Deal vetoed it after backlash around the country threatened Georgia with sanctions from the entertainment industry.The Federal Judge wrote in his ruling,  foreclosed litigation over laws interfering with the right to marry and rights and responsibilities intertwined with marriage. It also seems highly unlikely that the same court that held a state cannot ban gay marriage because it would deny benefits   expressly including the right to adopt   would then conclude that married gay couples can be denied that very same benefit. Mississippi was the last state in the country to stubbornly fight for their ban, first enacted in 2000, to discriminate against same sex couples from adopting. Alabama, Florida, Michigan, and Nebraska had similar laws, but have been overturned prior to this ruling. Mississippi did manage to pass a religious freedom discriminatory bill, allowing businesses to discriminate against the LGBT community, and restrictions still remain in several states for same-sex foster parents from discrimination. This welcome decision affirms that  qualified same-sex couples in Mississippi seeking to become adoptive or foster parents are entitled to equal treatment under the law, and commits to the well-being of children in our state who need loving homes,  said Rob Hill, the Human Rights Campaign State Director of Mississippi, in a statement.  Judge Jordan has repudiated reprehensible efforts by our elected leaders to deny legal rights to our families. They are on the wrong side of history, and today s decision confirms, yet again,that they are also on the wrong side of the law. Thursday s ruling is a victory in the continuing fight for LGBT rights as Republicans try to mask their homophobic and discriminatory beliefs towards the LGBT community through state legislation in the wake of the SCOTUS ruling which legalized marriage equality nationwide in 2015.Featured image via Flickr