The lawsuit stems from the experience of two prospective adoptive parents, Shannon Rose and Jane Wesley Brooks of San Diego, who say they began the certification process in July 2002 after being assured that their sexual orientation would not be an issue, reports the Los Angeles Times.
"We were upfront about it from day one," said Brooks, 42, a law student who says she and Rose, a doctor, have been in a relationship for 10 years."Then, all of a sudden, we get a call saying, 'We're putting together a new policy and you're not part of it.'" Brooks told the Times.
The policy stated that Olive Crest "prefers to place children with nuclear families" and that applicants who did not agree with Olive Crest's values would be referred to other agencies, court documents said.
Olive Crest – which, according to the lawsuit, gets more than 80 percent of its $29-million annual budget from federal, state and county sources – is one of several agencies that contract with Orange County to provide placement, care and treatment for foster children, including the recruitment, training and certification of foster and adoptive parents.
The lawsuit, which has been assigned to U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana, Calif., alleges that Olive Crest violated federal and state laws by adopting a family recruitment policy that discriminated against gay and lesbian couples. The agency has offices in Santa Ana and elsewhere.
Kelly Crosland, an Olive Crest official confirmed Thursday that the agency "prefers the nuclear family for children" but denied that it discriminates against other prospective parents.
"We prefer to place kids in the best situation for each individual child," she said, "and that [can be] a wide variety of situations."
Brooks and Rose have been trying to adopt for several years and applied at Olive Crest after moving in 2000 to California from Minnesota. A previous attempt to adopt in Minnesota failed after an agency social worker made remarks suggesting a bias against same-sex couples, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit stated that an Olive Crest social worker who handled the couple's application quit her job last year over the new recruitment policy because it was specifically intended to allow for discrimination against same-sex couples.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction ordering Olive Crest to end its allegedly discriminatory practices, as well as compensatory damages and legal costs.
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