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.
Karine Jean-Pierre, a veteran political organizer, commentator, and author, will be the chief of staff for newly announced VP candidate Kamala Harris. She’s also a lesbian mom—and her daughter was her inspiration to join the campaign.
New Hampshire has become the second state within the past week that has updated its parentage laws to better protect all children and families, including those formed through assisted reproduction.
The Rhode Island Legislature this afternoon passed a bill that updates the state’s parentage laws to provide stronger, more equitable protections for families formed via assisted reproduction.
Five years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that marriage should be open to all couples, no matter their gender—and one of the strongest arguments in the case was the best interests of children. Yet even five years after marriage equality, we are still struggling towards full equality for our families.
A federal court has ordered the U.S. State Department to recognize the U.S. citizenship of a child born to two U.S. citizen dads abroad—something the department had refused to do for more than a year. But several similar cases involving same-sex parents and their children are still pending.
The U.S. Supreme Court surprised many today with a landmark 6-3 ruling, written by Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, stating that people cannot be fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet last Friday, the Trump administration finalized a rule that says health care anti-discrimination protections don’t cover discrimination based on LGBTQ identities.
After a long effort by LGBTQ parents, prospective parents, and other advocates, the State of New York will finally legalize gestational surrogacy—and simplify and strengthen the laws around recognizing nonbiological parents and single parents in all families formed through reproductive technologies.
Nina Willbach and her wife, a Philadelphia couple, have been trying to get pregnant since last June via assisted insemination. On March 13th, they were told that their most recent attempt didn’t work—and they couldn’t try again because COVID-19 had put a stop to “elective procedures” in Pennsylvania. “I know a lot of folks are going through much worse right now, but it feels like a big blow when every month counts and we’ve had this many no’s,” Willbach told me in an online message. They’re not the only ones to have family-making plans halted during the pandemic.
A South Carolina law banning any discussion of same-sex relationships in public school health classes (except in the context of sexually transmitted diseases) is unconstitutional, a federal court said yesterday.
