In a heartwarming story out of Pawtucket, RI, Susan Borden and Kelly Day, two women who married in 2016, finally fulfilled their quest to adopt and now officially share the responsibility of cleaning up litter scattered over a portion of Interstate-95 at least four times a year!
What a touching beginning to a queer couple’s growing family.
Following America’s shameful history of homophobic legal barriers, same-sex couples were only granted the right to adopt in 2017 after the Supreme Court reversed an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling and ordered all states to grant same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples when it comes to applying for the DOT promotional campaign.
“It was a gruesome process of applications and home studies. We kept putting ourselves out there and I almost gave up,” shared Borden. “I’m thankful we always believed in ourselves and the love of a family.”
Day added that they’re honored to devote themselves to their community and regularly dawn tasteful orange reflective vests. “Since we don’t have kids, we have no other burdens distracting us from this huge responsibility.”
Yas queens! We stan this couple and their little piece of I-95!
Despite legal support, LGBTQ+ people have historically encountered judgment towards their parenting abilities. Even Borden and Day’s heteronormative relatives are skeptical of how their sexual orientation could affect their ability to follow a quarterly highway cleaning schedule.
“It’s just not how highways were meant to be adopted,” said Day’s aunt Lillian, who never cared about this during the years she spent driving on a highway adopted by the KKK. “Gay couples have to go against innate parental identities and just pick who’s the trash collector and who holds the garbage bag. It’s unnatural!”
Regardless, there are no scientific studies supporting the outdated, homophobic opinion that same-sex couples are biologically unfit to pick up debris on the side of a highway. In fact, what really makes good highway adopters are volunteers who want it, and we have no doubt that they’re going to do an incredible job!
