There’s been more coverage on both coasts of the new free forms that some states have just approved, giving same-sex parents, even when unmarried, legal rights to a child born to one of them, with the force of a court order. Read or watch below!
I wrote at length about these forms a few weeks ago. In short: The simple “Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage” form, currently available to couples of any gender in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Nevada (and Washington state early next year and California in 2020), allows both parents’ names go on the birth certificate, but also (unlike a birth certificate) “has the force and effect of a court decree of parentage and should be recognized in all states,” explained GLAD Senior Staff Attorney Patience Crozier.
These forms are much needed. A two-mom couple in California, for example, recently ran into obstacles trying to put the nonbiological mother on the birth certificate. The women are unmarried—one explained to NBC 7, “We chose not to be married first and spend our money towards making a baby.” The hospital therefore refused to put the nonbio mom on the birth certificate. As the article explains, a new law will allow for a simple, free “Declaration of Parentage” form that same-sex couples, married or not, can use at the hospital to overcome this. The article implies, however, that the benefit of the form is that it allows both parents to go on the birth certificate. The real benefit, however, is that the form has the force of a court order, and is thus a stronger legal document than a birth certificate alone.
And in Kentucky, as I wrote this week, a recent custody case could have been clarified if that state allowed same-sex couples to use these parentage forms, which were originally designed for unmarried, different-sex couples to secure the father’s legal rights. That case also underscores why we need to insist that marriage equality shouldn’t mean all couples must marry in order to be legal parents of their children.
WGBH in Boston this week covered Massachusetts’ Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage forms, and quotes Crozier, too. Watch their coverage below, or read a text version here. One thing WGBH doesn’t make clear, however, is that in Massachusetts, unlike the other four states that offer a similar form, the form is only for unmarried couples. I think there’s definitely a need for married same-sex couples to have access to such forms as well—those of us who go the belt-and-suspenders route of also doing second-parent adoptions even when married and on the birth certificate will also appreciate a simple, free form that has the same legal weight as a second-parent adoption. (Or should have the same weight: Crozier and other LGBTQ legal experts are still recommending second-parent adoptions until Voluntary Acknowledgement of Parentage forms are more widely recognized.)
As I said before, these forms, which Crozier told me are “a real game-changer for LGBTQ parents,” are a trend worth watching and encouraging.