The Fight for Gay and Lesbian Adoption Rights: A Milestone on the Road to LGBTQ+ Equality  

Hybrid Format: Come in person to Lacey City Hall, Council Chambers or join online. Registration required for online attendance only. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

Program Description

It’s 1986 in Thurston County, WA. Bio-mom Lisa, and lesbian partner Lynn, are having a baby using donor insemination, but equal rights for the nonbiological mom to legally parent their child is not a given. This is the story of how, after a two-year court battle, they secured these parenting rights for themselves and for all other same-sex couples in the state of Washington and then extended throughout the nation. Lynn and Lisa have continued to fight for LGBTQ+ equality and safety up to the present day. In this talk, they’ll discuss the local and national coalitions that helped bring about second parent adoption and later a string of other victories for the LGBTQ+ community.

Speakers

Lynn Grotsky and Lisa Brodoff, long term residents of Lacey, WA, have been in a committed relationship for 43 years and joyously legally married for 10 years. They have two wonderful children, daughter Evan (36 years old) and son Micha (33 years old), and now two grandchildren both born during COVID. Lisa is now an emerita professor of law at Seattle University. She specializes in elder and disability law and has actively worked on expanding the rights of LGBTQ+ people for the past 40+ years. Lynn is a retired Clinical Social Worker who worked in private practice, helped found and was the first clinical director of Monarch Children’s Justice and Advocacy Center, and was the Cofounder and first Executive Director of Pizza Klatch, a nonprofit organization providing weekly lunchtime support groups for LGBTQ+ youth and their allies in all Thurston County High Schools and some middle schools.