Terrific news from Massachusetts today! Just before 3 a.m. this morning, the legislature enacted the Massachusetts Parentage Act, updating state parentage laws to better protect the children of LGBTQ parents, those formed via assisted reproduction, and those with de facto or functional parents.
On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Senate voted 40 to 0 for an Act to Ensure Legal Parentage Equality (known as the Massachusetts Parentage Act, or MPA), which had passed the House unanimously last month. The bill went back for concurrence and final votes on Wednesday, and was enacted unanimously in both chambers just before 3 a.m. Thursday as legislators worked through the night on the last day of the session. The bill (H.4970) now goes to Governor Maura Healey (D), who has already expressed her support.
Massachusetts had been the only New England state that had not comprehensively reformed its parentage laws to account for the diversity of family forms today—although it has one of the highest rates of births through assisted reproduction in the nation, and was the first in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry. Its 40-year-old parentage statutes left children vulnerable, as many people testified at a hearing last fall.
In passing this legislation, we will send a powerful message about the dignity and worth of all Massachusetts families.
Massachusetts Senator Julian Cyr (D)
“In passing this legislation, we will send a powerful message about the dignity and worth of all Massachusetts families,” said Senator Julian Cyr (D), one of the lead Senate sponsors, on the Senate floor Tuesday. He spoke of the many protections that flow from legal parentage, including inheritance, health insurance, custody, Social Security, and more, “Not to mention all of the emotional benefits of being declared your child’s legal parent.”
For children, Cyr said, legal parentage is “central to their stability, security, and well-being.” The bill will have impact beyond Massachusetts, too, he noted, explaining that legal parentage which is recognized in Massachusetts must be granted “full faith and credit” in other states, “regardless of that state’s policy.”
Every child must have the right to have parentage clearly established, and that is true for parents as well, who may come to this situation from different circumstances, who may have used different technology, but who remain parents, with a parental obligation to the child.
Massachusetts Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R)
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R), also a lead Senate sponsor, spoke on the floor Tuesday about “the urgency and importance of adopting this legislation.” He asserted, “No child in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should have to live with the uncertainty that is created when we don’t have statutes that are clear and well-defined and responsible…. Every child must have the right to have parentage clearly established, and that is true for parents as well, who may come to this situation from different circumstances, who may have used different technology, but who remain parents, with a parental obligation to the child.”
Tarr thanked Cyr, saying, “I am so, so pleased that we’ve been able to work together to advance this important policy initiative.”
And Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), said in a statement:
After more than seven years of advocacy, so many children and families in Massachusetts—and countless future generations—will now have the basic protections that legal parentage provides for children. We thank Massachusetts legislators, especially the bill co-sponsors and the leaders of the House and Senate, for recognizing the importance of parentage equality and making it a priority to enact this bill. We are now eager for Governor Healey to sign the MPA into law so that Massachusetts can ensure security for all children and families.
A version of the MPA that had been introduced in the previous session had bipartisan support, but was unable to move forward during a busy legislative season. The MPA was reintroduced in January 2024, again with a show of bipartisanship, by lead House sponsors Rep. Sarah Peake (D), and Rep. Hannah Kane (R), along with Cyr (D) and Tarr (R) in the Senate. Among other things, the MPA:
- Clearly asserts who can be a parent and the many ways to establish parentage, including by surrogacy and via consent to a spouse or partner’s assisted reproduction;
- Adds protections for children born through assisted reproduction, including surrogacy;
- Clarifies that a de facto or functional parent has equal rights and responsibilities to any other type of parent;
- Expands access to Voluntary Acknowledgments of Parentage (VAPs), simple, free forms that can be completed at the hospital immediately after a birth to establish legal parentage. Massachusetts now becomes the 12th state where parents of any gender or marital status can access VAPs. (For more on VAPs, see my piece from July 2021.)
- Removes gendered language from parentage statutes; and
- Generally clarifies standards and codifies precedents so that courts can have greater consistency and efficiency in establishing parentage claims.
The MPA is based on the 2017 Uniform Parentage Act (UPA), model parentage legislation developed by the non-partisan Uniform Law Commission. Massachusetts is now the 9th state to enact comprehensive legislation based on or substantially similar to the 2017 UPA, following California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. (Additionally, New Hampshire and New York have comprehensive parentage legislation that is not based on the UPA, per the Movement Advancement Project.) Pennsylvania is currently considering a bill to update its parentage legislation; it now sits in the House Judiciary Committee.
LGBTQ parents and others forming families via assisted reproduction in states without updated statutes may find that establishing parentage is still confusing, expensive, humiliating, and lengthy, leaving children vulnerable, as I explained further in my May piece on “Addressing the Urgent Need for Parentage Reform to Protect All Children.” Massachusetts families, however, have a more equitable future on the horizon. Once signed by the governor, the MPA would go into effect on January 1, 2025.
Many kudos to the Massachusetts Parentage Act Coalition, the group of parents, families, and more than 60 organizations that spearheaded the effort to pass the bill, in coordination with their legislative partners. They didn’t give up, and many families here in my home state will be the better for it.
If you live in Massachusetts, please thank your state senator and representative now for their support of the bill.
For more details and resources on parentage, please read “LGBTQ Paths to Parentage Security,” a short guide from myself and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD; not to be confused with media advocacy organization GLAAD).