(Washington Post) April DeBoer never intended to be a legal pioneer, much less a public face of perhaps the most significant civil rights challenge to reach the Supreme Court in years. She and her partner just wanted to be able to adopt children as a couple.
But when their lawsuit challenging Michigan's adoption code came to a federal district court in 2012, the judge shocked DeBoer and her partner, Jayne Rowse, telling them they should instead be contesting the state's same-sex marriage ban. After much anguished discussion, the couple agreed, DeBoer recounted.
"By no means did we set out to be trailblazers," said DeBoer, a nurse who along with Rowse has cared for numerous foster children with special needs. "Taking on the marriage ban seemed like a huge battle, and it still is, but the ban isn't right. It harms families like ours, so we decided we needed to do it."
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