Gilbert v. Alabama Department of Human Resources

On December 12, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued a landmark ruling in Gilbert v. Alabama Department of Human Resources. The plaintiffs, Rebecca and Leigh Gilbert, a legally married lesbian couple, applied to become foster parents but were rejected by the Alabama DHR solely because of their sexual orientation. Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the couple filed suit arguing that the agency's policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court agreed, finding that the state had no rational basis for excluding same-sex married couples from fostering. The judge issued a permanent injunction, prohibiting the DHR from denying foster parent applications based on sexual orientation. This case arose against the backdrop of lingering state resistance to full recognition of LGBTQ family rights after marriage equality, and the ruling directly addressed discrimination in the child welfare system.

The court granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, declaring the discriminatory policy unconstitutional and issuing a permanent injunction that barred the Alabama DHR from refusing to license or consider foster parent applicants on the basis of sexual orientation.

Whether the Alabama Department of Human Resources' policy and practice of denying foster parent applications submitted by married same-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The decision affirmed the legal fitness of same-sex couples to serve as foster parents, dismantled a discriminatory barrier in Alabama's child welfare system, and established a persuasive precedent for challenging similar foster care and adoption discrimination in other conservative jurisdictions. It also underscored the reach of federal constitutional protections for LGBTQ families in the Deep South.