Not in Missouri.

When Missouri resident Lisa Johnston applied to be a foster parent in 2003, an administrative judge found her to be "exceptionally" qualified. After all, the 40-year-old graduate of the University of Kansas holds a degree in human development and family with a special emphasis on child development.

But when the Missouri Department of Social Services learned that she was planning on raising the child with her partner, Dawn Roginski, they denied her application. "All we want is the chance to open our home and our hearts to a child," says Johnston, who had hoped to foster a special-needs child. "When we learned that we'd never be given that chance because we're lesbians, we were heartbroken."

On November 3 the American Civil Liberties Union asked a Jackson County circuit court judge to overtum the social services department's decision, which was based in part on a statewide antisodomy law. "That law was already rendered unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas two years ago," says the ACLU's Brett Shirk.