U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine believes gay couples should be able to adopt if a judge deems it in the best interest of the child, he told the Washington Post in a recent interview.
“I think the best interest of the child is a pretty hard standard to argue with and I think that ought to be the standard,’’ said Kaine, the former governor who is now a candidate in the Democratic Senate primary.
That’s a change from the position Kaine took when he was running for governor and said he was opposed to unmarried couples — heterosexual or homosexual — adopting.
“No couples in Virginia can adopt other than a married couple -- that’s the right policy,’’ Kaine said in 2005 during his successful campaign for governor. “Gay individuals should be able to adopt.”
Kaine’s staff told the Post following the recent interview that his stance had shifted as he became increasingly convinced that the best interest of the child was all that mattered.
Virginia is one of 34 states where only single men and women and married couples can adopt, according to the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/kaine-gay-couples-should-be-allowed-to-adopt/2011/05/16/AF8SV15G_blog.html