The Massachusetts House unanimously passed critical legislation yesterday that would update the state’s parentage laws to better protect the children of LGBTQ parents and others regardless of the circumstances of their birth. Representatives spoke of how current laws shockingly fall short and urged passage of the bill for both personal and societal reasons.
As we head into Pride Month, I am moved once again to ponder all that I am proud of. My son tops the list, as always—but I am also proud of how we LGBTQ families and our allies have been able to keep pushing towards equality, despite an unprecedented amount of anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric right now.
All children gain security and benefits from legal ties to their parents. Yet children with LGBTQ parents, and those born through assisted reproduction, lack clear and simple ways to establish legal parentage in many states. Two key advocates in Michigan’s successful recent effort to make parentage laws more equitable and inclusive shared advice with me that they hope will help other states do the same.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed legislation updating the state’s parentage laws to reflect the many ways families are formed today and equally protect all of the children in them, including those with LGBTQ parents. At least three other states have similar legislation pending—though many others lag behind.
A North Carolina Appeals Court has ruled that a nonbiological mother, despite sharing custody of the child she and her former partner had via IVF, does not owe child support because she is not a legal parent and did not agree in writing to provide support.
The Michigan legislature yesterday passed the Michigan Family Protection Act, a bill package to decriminalize contractual surrogacy and to ensure that all children born via assisted reproduction—including those with LGBTQ parents—can have equitable access to legal parentage ties from birth, including via a simple acknowledgment of parentage form.
The city court in Padua, Italy, has affirmed that children with two moms can have their nongestational mothers on their birth certificates. The ruling defies central government officials in the city, who last fall told 27 two-mom families, raising more than 30 children, that the nongestational parent was being removed from these vital documents.
The European Parliament voted last week in support of legislation that would require all EU states to recognize parentage granted in another EU state. That’s good news, particularly for children of LGBTQ parents—but the legislation is not yet guaranteed to become law.
Yesterday, 20 years to the week after Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize marriage equality, LGBTQ parents and others testified in support of legislation to finally update the state’s parentage laws so that children of LGBTQ parents—and all children—have equal access to the security of legal parentage.
Marriage equality has helped LGBTQ parents and our children in many ways—but should we have to marry? A decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will now make it much more difficult for both same- and different-sex couples to obtain co-parent (sometimes called second-parent) adoptions unless they are married.
