After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ongoing attacks on transgender children and youth, and more than 300 anti-LGBTQ state bills introduced in 2022, Family Equality has launched a new online tool to help families wondering what to do.
We’re full of stories today: personal stories of forming families, reflections from grown children of LGBTQ parents, and the political stories impacting LGBTQ parents and our children. Have a read of what I haven’t covered elsewhere.
How can LGBTQ families best protect themselves after the Dobbs decision? Polly Crozier, senior staff attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), and Julie Gonen, federal policy director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), shared their thoughts with me.
An Oklahoma judge has vacated her earlier decision that ordered a nongestational mother removed from her child’s birth certificate. This means the mom can stay on the birth certificate, but still does not guarantee her parental rights. It’s a case all queer parents should note carefully.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) yesterday signed “Marlo’s Law,” which will ensure critical legal protections for families formed via assisted reproduction and is named after the child of the bill’s co-prime sponsor, a lesbian mom. The Colorado legislature has also recently passed a bill ensuring that donor-conceived people have access to certain information about their sperm/egg donors.
A divorce case playing out in Oklahoma offers a frightening reminder of why nonbiological/nongestational parents in same-sex couples need to get confirmatory adoptions, court orders, or equivalents, even if they are married and on their children’s birth certificates.
Two recent state supreme court rulings, in Alaska and Idaho, underline the wildly different requirements same-sex parents may face to prove their parenthood.
Indiana continues to press the U.S. Supreme Court to take a case that would deny the right of married nonbiological mothers in same-sex couples to be recognized as legal parents by being put on their children’s birth certificates. It doubled down in a brief filed with the court last week. Double down with me as we take a look at the case—and how parenting bloggers are inadvertently playing an odd role.
Two LGBTQ legal experts recently spoke on a GLAD panel about second-parent (co-parent) adoptions, Voluntary Acknowledgments of Parentage, and other ways LGBTQ parents can secure our legal relationships with our children. Regardless of who is in the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court remains conservative, and these actions are an important way of protecting our families. Watch the video now.
One of the most common questions I see from LGBTQ parents is whether and how nonbiological/nongestational parents should do a co-parent (second-parent) adoption, especially if they’re married and on their children’s birth certificates. Here are some things to know and resources to get you started, for both married and unmarried couples.
