Father's Day Times Two: Gay Parents not Hindered by Arizona Adoption Law

Photo By: Melissa Logan Haun

WASHINGTON – Luis Ortega plans to spend Father’s Day with his son, Robert, at their favorite park – where they will honor the memory of Luis’ late partner and Robert’s other dad, Christian Barco, who died suddenly last year.

Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but Ortega appears to be one of a small but growing number of adoptive gay parents in Arizona, where advocates had feared that a 2011 law giving preference to married couples would discriminate against gays.

Adoption agencies said the law appears to have had little effect. And even though this Father’s Day will be bittersweet for Ortega, he said he knows that Robert “was ours and no piece of paper would ever change that.”