“Connecticut, a court decision precipitated legislative approval of second-parent adoptions. Only three of the legislatures of the ten states that permit adoption have followed up the court decisions with changes in their adoption statutes. Favorable trial court rulings have secured adoption rights in the fifteen other states where gay couples can adopt in certain jurisdictions. In his study of 163 adoption, custody, visitation, and foster care decisions of state appellate courts from 1981 to 2000, Pinello (2003, 16, 18) found that gay and lesbian petitioners prevailed more than half of the time and that their chances of success increased more than 50 percent over that period.”