Georgia's 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment bans same sex marriage as well as divorce. But there's no Georgia law against same sex adoption.

Atlanta Attorney Merritt McAlister doesn't think that will change once the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether states are required to grant same sex marriage licenses. "There's no law that says same sex couples or gay and lesbian couples cannot adopt in Georgia,"; said McAlister.

In fact, Mississippi is the only state that explicitly bans same sex adoption. The key legal variable is whether a child has a biological relationship with one of the parents. If it's a stranger adoption in which the child has no biological connection with either adult, the process is a standard adoption where both of the parents would be adopting the child anew.

The process is the same as a heterosexual couple adopting a child. It's also the same if one parent has a biological connection. In this case, it's considered a second parent adoption.

"The parental rights of the biological parent are essentially terminated on paper for a moment and then both parents re-adopt the child as strangers to the adoption," said McAlister. Not all same sex couples choose to marry legally, however, but McAlister says the Supreme Court ruling may create legal language that would support gay couples' rights to create a family.

One thing McAlister does predict is more litigation to clarify the rights of same sex couples.

Tags: adoption, same-sex marriage, US Supreme Court