Interview with Cathy Sakimura of the National Center for Lesbian Rights

A little over a week ago, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) launched its Family Protection Project (FPP), to improve access to family law services for low-income LGBT families and to offer training on LGBT issues to the attorneys who provide those services.

Attorney Cathy Sakimura, Equal Justice Works Fellow at NCLR and manager of the FPP, was kind enough to answer some questions for Mombian readers about the Project. Prior to joining NCLR, Sakimura worked with Legal Services for Children, the ACCESS Self-Help Center of the San Francisco Superior Court, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), and as a Program Director for the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. She therefore brings both legal knowledge and real-world experience with LGBT families to her new role. She talks below about the FPP and offers some general advice for LGBT parents on legal protection for our families.

What are your goals for the Family Protection Project?

The goals of the Family Protection Project are 1) to train attorneys in the family law issues that affect LGBT parents and their children, 2) to support attorneys who provide free or low-cost family law services to low-income LGBT parents by assisting them with these cases, 3) to educate communities of color about the rights that LGBT parents and their children have and connect low-income families to affordable family law services, and 4) to improve and increase the National Center for Lesbian Right’s services to families of color.

How many attorneys do you hope to train, and how many families will they serve?

As a part of the Family Protection Project, we hope to train 100 or more attorneys in each state we target. We expect private attorneys to serve 1-2 families each, but attorneys in legal aid organizations will likely serve more families. We are in the process of surveying legal aid organizations to gain more information about their services and capacity.

You say the FPP will “reach out specifically to communities of color with relevant, culturally competent information.” Would you give an example or two of how you will do this?

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is committed to advancing the legal and human rights of all LGBT people and their families. One of our main priorities is producing materials and providing services that are culturally competent and relevant to families of color, who have been underserved by LGBT legal organizations. We are assembling a group of people with experience doing anti-racist work in LGBT communities to help us create know-your-rights brochures that address issues that are relevant to families of color. For instance, the materials will address issues that recent studies have shown are more commonly faced by families of color, such as how immigration status or military service affect the rights of LGBT parents and their children.

How many LGBT families across the country are classified as “low income,” and how do you define that? Percentage-wise, how does this compare to the number of straight families? Any other interesting demographics you’d like to share?

The Family Protection Project does not have its own specific income guidelines. We will work with any program that is designed to serve families who cannot afford a lawyer, and we will follow their income guidelines.

The average household income for same-sex parents in the United States is almost $11,000 lower than the average household income for married different-sex parents.¹ While there are no precise numbers on the number of LGBT people or LGBT parents, the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse has estimated that 6-10 million children have lesbian, gay, or bisexual parents.

Same-sex couples of color are up to twice as likely to be raising children than same-sex couples who are white, and a higher percentage of same-sex parents than married different-sex parents are people of color.²

What will the training involve? Who will conduct it, and how long will it take? Will there be a way for prospective clients to find out if an attorney has had your training?

All of our trainings will be done in conjunction with a conference or bar association. The length and format of the trainings will vary based on the requirements of the conference or group co-hosting the training. The trainings will be conducted by myself along with various co-presenters from other organizations. For instance, I will be presenting a training at the Equal Justice Conference with Lenore Carpenter of Equality Advocates Pennsylvania.

Prospective clients can ask their attorney if they want to know whether they have received one of our trainings. Additionally, clients can let their attorneys know that the National Center for Lesbian Rights is available to them as a resource.

How did you choose the states in which to begin the FPP? Are there plans for expanding into additional areas?

We chose these states for a number of reasons. We wanted to work in a mix of states — states where there are many legal protections for LGBT families as well as states that have very few. We chose California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas to pilot the project partly because we have strong connections with attorneys in these states who are experts in LGBT family law. We plan to add states every year, incorporating the lessons learned from the first year of the project.

Your press release says you will collaborate with local organizations as you roll out the FPP. What form or forms will this collaboration take?

Collaboration with local organizations is a key component of the project. Legal aid organizations and pro bono attorneys in these states are working on the ground serving low-income families. We will work with them to ensure that they have the resources, training, and support they need to represent LGBT parents. We will also work with community organizations to outreach to and provide information to low-income LGBT families about their rights. We will collaborate specifically with organizations serving communities of color to ensure that low-income families of color receive relevant, culturally competent information about how to protect their families.

What are the most common legal issues that same-sex parents should be aware of? How will the FPP help address them?

Same-sex parents should be aware that the law may not automatically recognize their relationship to their children. If you are not legally recognized as a parent, such as through biology or adoption, you may not have a right to custody or visitation if something happens to the child’s legal parent. You also may not be able to make medical decisions about your child in an emergency, have your child covered under your health insurance, or obtain a passport for your child. There are many important rights and responsibilities that can be denied to same-sex parents who are not legal parents.

Parents should take steps to get their relationships to their children legally recognized. In many parts of the country, you can get a parentage judgment or a second-parent adoption, which allows you to become a legal parent without affecting the rights of your child’s other parent. Where these protections are not available, there are other steps that you can take to protect some of your rights, such as obtaining authorization to consent to a minor’s medical care or entering a co-parenting agreement with your partner.

In states that allow legally partnered or married same-sex parents to both be on a child’s birth certificate without an adoption (CA, MA, and NJ), is it still recommended for parents to get an adoption or court order as well?

We do strongly recommend that everyone who is not a biological parent obtain an adoption or court order of parentage, even in states such as Massachusetts. If you do not have such a judgment, it is possible that you will experience difficulties in having your parent-child relationship honored when traveling to other states and countries or when dealing with the federal government. If the federal government does not legally recognize you as a parent, your children would be ineligible for social security benefits in the event of your death, you would not be able to obtain a passport for your child without your child’s legally recognized parent, and your children may be denied other federal benefits.

For more information about how to protect your family, please visit our website at www.nclrights.org and click on “Need Help?” or call our toll-free helpline at 1-800-528-6257.

What advice would you give same-sex families searching for an attorney? How can they find one trained in LGBT issues? What questions should they ask?

The National Center for Lesbian Rights maintains a list of attorneys who have indicated that they are LGBT friendly. We are not a referral service, so we encourage people to do their own investigation. People who would like to find an LGBT-friendly attorney can contact NCLR at info@nclrights.org or 1-800-528-6257.

If you want to find out whether an attorney has experience with legal issues affecting LGBT people and their families, the best thing to do is ask. You can ask an attorney whether she or he has been trained on these issues, whether she or he has represented LGBT parents before, and how much she or he knows about the different legal issues that LGBT people and their families face. It is also a good idea to talk to more than one attorney before choosing to hire one so that you know what your options are before making such an important decision.

¹Gates, G., et. al (2005). Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Couples Raising Children in the United States: Data From Census 2000. Los Angeles: The Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law.
² Gates, G., et. al (2005). Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Couples Raising Children in the United States: Data From Census 2000. Los Angeles: The Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law; Dang, A., & Frazer, S. (2004). Black Same-Sex Households in the United States: A Report from the 2000 Census. New York: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition.