PITTSBURGH, Pa. — A Pennsylvania court has ruled that an elderly man may legally dissolve the father-son adoption arrangement with his male partner so the two can become “married.”
A three-judge panel with the Superior Court of Pennsylvania issued its opinion on Wednesday, advising that “under the circumstances of this case, Pennsylvania law permits an unopposed annulment or revocation of an adult adoption.”
As previously reported, Nino Esposito, 80, had been with his partner Roland Bosee, 69, for 40 years when the two decided that Esposito would adopt Bosee as his son so that they could lower their inheritance tax and also be considered “family” under the law. Same-sex nuptials were then illegal in Pennsylvania.
“[The adoption] gave us the most legitimate thing available to us,” Bosee told reporters.
They were granted their request in court and consequently lived under the law as father and son, but after a judge struck down Pennsylvania’s same-sex “marriage” ban in 2014, the two decided to annul the adoption and instead “wed” each other.
But after filing paperwork to do so, Esposito and Bosee were rejected since fathers are not allowed to “marry” their adopted sons.
Judge Lawrence O’Toole of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, who is considered to be an advocate for homosexual causes, told the men last November that although he was “sympathetic” to their situation, he could not grant the request “because they are legally father and son.”
The men then appealed the ruled to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, which ruled in their favor last week.
“Although the Adoption Act does not expressly provide for the annulment of the adult adoption, case law does allow it in certain scenarios; and this case presents wholly new and unique circumstances,” President Judge Susan Peikes Gantman, wrote on behalf of the court.
“Pennsylvania law regarding same sex marriage [has] changed; same-sex couples in this Commonwealth may now exercise their fundamental right to marry. Therefore, where a same-sex couple, who previously obtained an adult adoption, now seeks to annul or revoke the adoption in order to marry, the Orphans’ court has the authority to annul or revoke the adult adoption,” she stated.
The men state that they are “relieved” at the news, as they thought their situation might be a “lost cause.”
“Marriage and family were undefiled when God gave them as a gift to mankind before sin entered the world,” notes James Beaubelle in his article “The Sacredness of Marriage.” “In Genesis 2:18, God enacted the first social foundation for mankind: ‘And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper [suitable for] him.'”
“Then, in verse 24, God sanctifies Adam’s relationship with Eve by declaring that the two would be joined together as one flesh, that a man and his wife should leave mother and father, cling to each other, and become their own family unit. In other words, marriage was dignified and defined by God as a joining of one man and one woman,” he outlines.
“Because marriage is a creation of God, it possesses a sacredness that no man-devised institution can ever have. This world is trying to exchange the sanctity of marriage for its complete opposite, the profane, but this secular approach will never produce a healthy society,” Baubelle said.
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