Marriage equality is now the law of the land—but parenting laws have yet to catch up in many places. Here are a few stories that show where they have and where they haven’t.
The Big Picture
- The LA Times hits the nail on the head in “With ruling on marriage equality, fight for gay families is next.” Writer Douglas Nejaime cautions that, “Old arguments against same-sex marriage may find new life in refusals to accept and acknowledge married same-sex parents.”
- The intertwined but separate fights for marital and parenting rights are playing out in Mexico, too, reports the Tucson Sentinel. (H/t The Handsome Father.)
The Work In Progress
- Texas spouses Keri Roberson and Molly Maness-Roberson had their child the way my spouse and I did, with one of them donating an egg to the other. The state won’t put them both on their son’s birth certificate, though. The Dallas Morning News profiles them and one other two-mom couple also hoping the state will change its policy.
- Three lesbian couples have sued Arkansas’s state health department for refusing to put both parents on their children’s birth certificates without a court order.
The Success Stories
- Ohio’s WBNS 10TV reports that some same-sex parents are now applying for step-parent adoptions to give them both legal rights. The Columbus Dispatch covers the same in more detail, but also notes, “Parental rights might not be as easily established for same-sex couples who have become parents through donors or surrogates who still could stake a claim, or who have ex-spouses and partners whose custodial or parental rights were not terminated.”
- A federal judge in Utah has ruled that both moms of a married lesbian couple must be put on their daughter’s birth certificate.
- KTVA Alaska profiles moms Amanda and Pam Bowers and their excitement over a statute change that now lets them both be on their daughter’s birth certificate. It’s a nice piece, but gives the impression that birth certificates alone are enough when LGBTQ legal groups are still advising parents to do a second-parent adoption or court order of parentage for the best possible protections if traveling.
- Because Utah law only allows people in “legally valid” relationships to foster or adopt children, it has only been since last October, when same-sex couples could marry in the state, that they could foster or adopt there. The Deseret News profiles two same-sex couples who have gone through the process and welcomed children into their lives.
