Family Leave Bill Only Good for Legal Families

Two recent pieces of legislation in Washington State show once again the interconnectedness between family rights and LGBT rights, a topic I have covered before. Governor Christine Gregoire last weekend signed domestic-partner legislation that will allow same-sex couples to receive a variety of rights over inheritance, hospital visitation, and medical decisions.

The Washington State Senate has also sent a bill to Governor Gregoire that would guarantee any employee in Washington five weeks of paid leave at the arrival of her or his new child. She is expected to sign it.

Note the gap between these bills, however—a gap same-sex families could fall through. The domestic partner law does not change anything about a non-biological parent’s rights (or lack thereof) with relation to her or his child. The family leave act does not include domestic partners in its definition of “immediate family member.” There is therefore no guarantee that a non-bio mom would get time off when her partner gives birth, before the non-bio mom did an adoption to become a legal parent. (The same would hold if the child was adopted from a country where unmarried couples cannot adopt, and one partner had to adopt before the other.) Yes, the non-bio mom could get leave when and if a second-parent adoption was granted, but that could be several months after the birth or first adoption. This blows away the legislature’s statement (PDF link) that it is in the public interest to establish a program that “Allows parents to bond with a newborn or newly placed child.”

It is also unclear if an employee could take time off to care for a domestic partner with “a serious health condition,” as the family leave act (PDF link) guarantees for “immediate family members.” The domestic partner bill refers to “immediate family members of the patient, including a patient’s state registered domestic partner,” in reference to disclosure of medical information, but I don’t know if this definition could be interpreted as extending to other laws encompassing “immediate family members.” (Interestingly, the Senate version (PDF link) of the bill included an explicit definition of “domestic partner” as “family member,” but this was removed by the House along with several other provisions, and did not appear in the final version.)

Still, both pieces of legislation have good things in them. I am sure there are folks in Washington working even now to ensure that family leave will encompass domestic partners, and that domestic partners gain even more rights to protect their families.