Three recent stories about same-sex parents trying to obtain accurate birth certificates for their children underscore the obstacles and confusion we often face in trying to protect our families.
A new law in Washington, D.C. is drawing lesbian couples from other jurisdictions to give birth there — and a bill making its way through the California legislature could simplify the paperwork and clarify parenting arrangements for same-sex couples in that state.
A new academic review has surveyed the legal landscape for lesbian and gay parents in child custody cases, both with same-sex former partners and different-sex ones. It found that courts have not always taken into consideration the social science research that has found children raised by gay or lesbian parents are as well-adjusted as their peers
Great news from Idaho this morning: The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a person can petition to do a second-parent adoption of another’s child, even if the two adults are not married.
Right after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last June that the federal government must recognize marriages of same-sex couples, I warned that this was not a reason for us to stop getting second-parent adoptions. Now, a New York judge has shown she just doesn’t understand that. Moms Amalia and Melissa had their son in New York,
The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that a child can have two parents of the same sex, even if they have not done a second-parent adoption. This is good news—but behind it is yet another case of a biological mother trying to deny parental rights to a nonbiological mother.
My 10-year-old son throws around the word “epic” on a daily basis. His newest Pokémon card? Epic. His latest zombie-defeating battle in Minecraft, his favorite online game? Epic. The word seemed in danger of losing its original clout—and then the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). That, I told him, was epic.
Great news out of Kansas this afternoon. In a case involving two lesbian moms, the state Supreme Court ruled that a non-biological mother may be recognized as a parent under the law.
The ACLU has filed a new federal case in North Carolina, seeking to overturn the state’s ban on second-parent adoption. A win would mean that kids being raised by same-sex couples could have “legally protected relationships with both of the parents who are raising them.” Because the case was brought under the federal constitution, a win could have an impact on other states as well.
President Obama has said that same-sex parents and their children influenced his decision to support marriage equality. And in the Washington Post recently, Janice D’Arcy asked, “Has gay parenting ‘normalized’ the perception of gay relationships?” The interaction between LGBT parenting rights and relationship rights is indeed a fascinating and important question—and one charted in part by law professor Carlos Ball, whose new book also gives us a compelling history of the expansion of LGBT parenting rights. Here’s my review of his work, originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.
