Catch up on some LGBTQ parenting news stories I haven’t covered elsewhere, including legislative moves (positive and negative), profiles of lesbian, gay, and trans parents, and more!
Politics and Law
- A long piece in the New York Times explores why a movement to end anonymous gamete (sperm and egg) donation poses legal risks for LGBTQ families. This is an important issue that I’ve mentioned before; it’s well worth understanding.
- The Michigan House passed the Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy Parentage Act (HB 5207; PDF), which would update the state’s parentage laws to provide clear paths to parentage for children born via assisted reproduction and surrogacy. Michigan is the last state not to allow surrogacy contracts and provide a clear path to parentage for children born via surrogacy. The bill now goes to the state Senate.
- People’s profile of Tammy and Jordan Myers, a different-sex couple who had to adopt their own genetic twins, born via surrogacy, shows that families of all types will benefit from updated, LGBTQ-inclusive parentage legislation like that moving forward in Michigan and Massachusetts.
- U.S. Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) has introduced a bill that would ban entities receiving federal funds from delaying or denying adoption or foster care placements because a potential foster/adoptive parent is opposed to affirming a child’s LGBTQ+ identity or wishes to deny medically necessary care to trans youth, according to the Advocate. In other words, the bill would allow LGBTQ youth to be placed in unsupportive homes. The bill is intended to oppose the Biden administration’s proposed rule that would “ensure that LGBTQI+ children in their care are placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity.” While Banks’s bill might pass the House, the Advocate opines, it has little chance in the Senate. Thank goodness.
- President Biden nominated Nicole Berner, general counsel of the Service Employees International Union, to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If confirmed by the Senate, Berner would be the first LGBTQ person in the role. She is also a dual American-Israeli citizen who won a landmark legal battle in 2000, getting Israel to recognize her as mother to her son after she had secured her parentage via co-parent adoption in California, as the New Israel Fund explained. She and her then-partner next successfully fought to have Israel recognize her partner as parent to their two younger children.
- The U.K. is making two major updates to its IVF laws: People with undetectable HIV will now be able to access in vitro fertilization (IVF) and will be able to donate gametes (egg and sperm), and two-woman couples will no longer have to pay for additional medical screening before IVF, which are not required for different-sex couples, reports the Guardian.
- A proposed law in the U.K. would remove anonymity from all gamete donors from the moment of a child’s birth. It would only apply to those donating after the law is passed, according to the Guardian.
Family Profiles
- Sam Guido and Kayden Coleman, trans men who each gave birth to their children, spoke with The 19th about their experiences with the healthcare system and finding support and community.
- Hello! magazine interviewed Kerry and Emily, a couple in the U.K. who are simultaneously pregnant via reciprocal IVF (though not with “each other’s baby” as the article puts it—both babies will be both of theirs). For some additional stories of simultaneous two-mom pregnancies (though not double RIVF ones), see this post.
- The BBC profiled Paul Wright and his husband Martin, who adopted their son two years ago in Belfast. The piece also looks back at the decade since same-sex couples have been able to adopt in Northern Ireland.