A May 4 decision by the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has expanded the rights of non-biological same-sex parents. All seven appellate court judges agreed that Debra H., a non-biological mother, is a legal parent who can seek custody and visitation from her former partner, Janice R.
Prior to the birth of their son, the couple had entered into a civil union in Vermont, where both partners are recognized as legal parents of a child born in the relationship. Marriages of same-sex couples are not available in New York, but the state recognizes unions performed in other jurisdictions. The court affirmed that “New York will recognize parentage created by a civil union in Vermont.”
The ruling allows Debra to go to trial court and seek custody and visitation, as well as provide her son, now six and a half years old, with financial support. Unfortunately, however, a majority of the court stopped short of overruling its 1991 decision in Alison D. v. Virginia M., which held that only a person related by biology or adoption to a child qualifies as a parent.
The decision adds one more category of parent: those in an out-of-state legally recognized relationship with a child’s biological parent, but does not go far enough.
“This is a terrific outcome for our client,” said Susan Sommer, Director of Constitutional Litigation at Lambda Legal. “But it doesn’t solve the dilemma for many New York children. You should not have to travel out of state to establish your legal relationship with your child. The New York legislature should follow the lead taken by many other states and pass legislation clarifying children’s legal relationships with both their intended parents, regardless whether the parents have entered into a marriage or civil union.”
Debra and Janice agreed to raise a family together in a two-parent household and conceived their son using in vitro fertilization. Debra was by Janice’s side throughout labor and delivery and cut their son’s umbilical cord; her last name was included in their son’s name on his birth certificate. In the years that followed Debra gave him the nurture and care of a mother.
Janice had promised that Debra would formally adopt their child, and they met with an adoption lawyer prior to their son’s birth. But when it came time for the second-parent adoption, Janice, who is an attorney, advised Debra “as a lawyer” that they didn’t need to get the courts involved because Debra would always be the boy’s parent. When the couple’s relationship ended in 2006, Debra continued to parent her son, who moved with Janice into an apartment only a block away.
In May 2008, Janice abruptly refused Debra any further contact with the boy. Debra filed for emergency joint custody and restoration of parental access. The trial court ordered interim regular ongoing visitation and allowed Debra’s petition to proceed to a hearing. When Janice appealed, Lambda Legal entered the case in early 2009 on Debra’s behalf.
Many prominent legal and child welfare experts filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the rights of non-biological parents in circumstances such as this, including the New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and 45 family law professors on the faculty of every law school in New York State. The boy’s court-appointed attorney also asked the court to give Debra the opportunity to protect their relationship.
> According to a story broken by the Miami New Times, George Alan Rekers, co-founder of the virulently anti-gay Family Research Council and a leading voice in the “ex-gay” therapy movement, recently spent 10 days vacationing in Europe with a male sex worker. Rekers has subsequently admitted to meeting his companion on Rentboy.com, but says he took the 20-year-old along to carry his luggage. [Ed. Note: We really don’t make this stuff up, folks.]
> The Illinois House of Representatives unanimously passed an enumerated anti-bullying bill last month that includes protections from bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. The Senate has already approved the measure. At press time, the bill was awaiting Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature, which was expected.
> Earlier this month, lesbian candidate Nickie Antonio won the Democratic primary in the District 13 Ohio State House race. With only token opposition in the general election this November — there were no Republican primary candidates — Antonio is poised to become Ohio’s first openly LGBT state legislator.
> The National Center for Lesbian Rights has added a newly created position, federal policy attorney, to its national legal team. NCLR’s new attorney, Maya R. Rupert, will be based in the Eastern Regional Office in Washington, D.C. where she will “focus efforts on federal and state levels to end discrimination and to ensure equality under the law.”
> China has overturned its law barring people with HIV from entering the country. U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, led the successful effort to end a similar ban in the U.S. last year. “This is evidence that when the United States leads with our ideals, the world takes the power of our example very seriously. We fought hard to end our own unwarranted, unjustifiable HIV travel restriction, and now China has taken the same step,” Kerry said. : :