The law governing LGBT-parent families

Abstract

This chapter reviews the law relevant to LGBT parents and prospective parents. It pays particular attention to the concept of legal parentage as opposed to social parentage. At the outset, it explores why legal parentage is a critical concept: Legal parents have significant rights and obligations vis-à-vis their children that are not shared by nonparents. Co-parenting relationships with one legal and one nonlegal parent are potentially unstable because of the inequality in legal power. The chapter also discusses the complicated patchwork of laws governing establishment of parental rights faced by LGBT people. These laws vary by state and also by the means used to arrive at parenthood. Lesbians and gay men become parents by a variety of methods, including adoption and assisted reproductive technology, and legal rules in these two domains differ. Further, federal law, which governs certain benefits like Social Security, must be considered. In general, LGBT individuals contemplating parenthood would do well to familiarize themselves with the law in their jurisdictions to ensure that the relationships they forge with their children are adequately protected.