A Massachusetts bill that would better protect children born through assisted reproduction, surrogacy, and to unmarried same-sex parents will get a hearing next Tuesday, November 9. Learn more and find out how you can help all children have equal access to legal parentage!
Massachusetts, which led the nation in marriage equality, has fallen behind in protecting the children of LGBTQ parents. It is now the only New England state that has not comprehensively reformed its parentage laws to protect children regardless of the circumstances of their birth or the gender or marital status of their parents. The Massachusetts Parentage Act (MPA), a bill now in the Legislature, could change that.
Marriage equality has been the law nationwide since 2015, but married and unmarried LGBTQ couples who use third-party assisted reproductive technologies (ART) still face significant obstacles in most states to securing ironclad legal parentage for both parents. Progress in a few states, most recently in New England, may point the way forward.
Yes, even in Massachusetts, which led the nation in marriage equality, married same-sex couples who use assisted reproduction still need to do lengthy, expensive, and intrusive second-parent adoptions in order for their children to have ironclad legal ties to both parents. A new bill would greatly simplify the process. Bills in New Hampshire and Rhode Island would also streamline the recognition of nonbiological parents—but they all need your support.
Fifteen years ago today was the first legal wedding of a same-sex couple in the United States—moms Hillary and Julie Goodridge. Now they and their daughter Annie are sharing more about their fight to marry and the stress that it caused on their relationship—stress that caused them to divorce five years later. It’s a sobering tale about the price that progress can have on activists and their families.
Both Massachusetts and Illinois have recently taken steps towards including the history and achievements of LGBTQ people—and the authentic telling of their lives—in the states’ education curricula.
I’m very pleased to bring you a guest piece by Patience Crozier, an attorney with GLAD who was co-counsel in a key case about the rights of nonbiological moms. She not only discusses the case, but also shares some key points that unmarried same-sex parents or prospective parents should know about securing ties to their children.
Yes, even in Massachusetts, the first state to have marriage equality, same-sex parents have had to fight for their rights—not least because the benefits of marriage don’t cover unmarried parents. Today, however, saw a clear victory for one unmarried nonbiological mother and her children.
Allow me a moment of hometown pride. The Massachusetts Senate has just passed a transgender protections bill—and while it is not yet law, it is a breath of fresh air after the awful anti-trans bill passed in North Carolina.
Yesterday, Massachusetts’ highest court heard the case of a nonbiological mother fighting for legal parentage of the two children she planned and raised with a former partner.
