Proud Parenting

LGBTQ Parents - Lesbian Moms & Gay Dads

Adoptions are still necessary for same-gender married parents

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Marriage equality doesn’t guarantee that both parents are automatically recognized as legal parents of their child, even if they are both named on the birth certificate. For example, in North Carolina – and virtually all other states – being named on the birth certificate is only a presumption that the parent is a legal parent. If the person is not biologically related to the child or did not adopt the child then she or he is not a legal parent, except under specific surrogacy situations where a court has signed a parentage judgment.

A legal parent has a right to custody of the child and the right to make all decisions about the child, including about the child’s health and medical care, education and well-being. A legal parent is financially responsible for the child. A non-legal parent does not have any of these rights.

Married same-gender parents are being advised to protect their families by having the non-biological parent do an adoption or get a parentage judgment (if available). According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights: “Regardless of whether you are married or in a civil union or a comprehensive domestic partnership, NCLR always encourages non-biological and non-adoptive parents to get an adoption or parentage judgment, even if you are named on your child’s birth certificate.” NCLR also recommends parents have family protection documents such as medical authorization, guardianship agreements, wills, and advance directives.

It isn’t just same-gender married couples who face this unfair situation. If a DNA test shows the husband in a different-sex married couple is not the biological father, then he has to adopt the child to become a legal parent, even if his name was already on the birth certificate.

via qnotes.com

Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio fight for marriage equality

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On August 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals will hear challenges to laws banning marriage equality in Kentucky (two cases), Michigan, Ohio (two cases), and Tennessee. Oral argument will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern.

This is the most marriage cases that any federal circuit court has ever heard in a single day, and the fourth argument to be heard by a federal circuit court since the United States Supreme Court’s decision last summer striking down DOMA.

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The National Center for Lesbian Rights is representing plaintiffs in Tennessee, American Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in case representing plaintiffs in Ohio, and Lambda Legal is representing plaintiffs in Ohio.

Since the Supreme Court’s June 2013 decision, there have been a total of 34 rulings in favor of the freedom to marry in 31 cases from 26 different federal and state courts involving the marriage laws of the United States and 21 states including Utah, Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The Tenth and Fourth Circuits heard oral arguments earlier this year. The Tenth Circuit issued rulings on June 25, 2014, and July 17, 2014, in cases from Utah and Oklahoma. The Fourth Circuit issued a ruling on July 28, 2014, in a case from Virginia. All three decisions held that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry.

via press release

NCLR settles same-sex parent custody dispute

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National Center for Lesbian Rights [NCLR] announced the resolution of the custody dispute between Kim Smith and Maggie Quale in Santa Cruz, California.

According to NCLR – while in a committed relationship for over two years – Smith and Quale had twins together using donated sperm. The couple paid a sperm donor $540 for his donation from their joint bank account. They had twins, and raised them together for approximately six months before breaking up.

The dispute arose when the couple separated and Quale – who had given birth to the twins – challenged Smith’s parental rights. And then Quale asked the sperm donor to file a paternity action, and move in with her and the twins!

“Kim and Maggie are working hard to rebuild trust and are returning their focus to the care of their children,” said Deborah Wald, one of the attorneys, along with NCLR, who represented Smith.

Under the settlement, both women are recognized as legal parents of their twins.

ACLU says Fresno hospital discriminated against lesbian couple after woman’s collapse

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The AP reports that civil rights groups are urging a hospital in central California to change its policies after employees briefly barred a lesbian from visiting her partner, who went into seizure at a gay marriage march.

Kristin Orbin collapsed May 30 after walking 14 miles in the protest march. She was taken to Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center, where she says an ambulance driver kept her partner from seeing her in the emergency room.

Teresa Rowe says hospital employees also ignored her requests to talk to a doctor about Orbin’s care.

Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Lesbian Rights on Monday urged the hospital to change its policies.

The nonprofit system that runs the hospital says Orbin received good care and the hospital followed proper procedures.