Protecting families
Addressing the urgent need for parentage reform 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 recently shared advice with me that they hope will help other states do the same. “I think it comes down to a willingness to listen and learn,” said Stephanie Jones, founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance, a grassroots, volunteer organization that led the charge for reform.
The MFA’s initial focus was on decriminalizing contractual surrogacy in Michigan, the only state where it was illegal, and clarifying paths to parentage for children born via surrogacy.
By listening to families and “understanding other struggles,” however, Jones said, “We knew we needed to expand that focus.” Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, which partnered with the MFA on the effort, commended it for the “active and intentional decision” to ask, “How can we be as broad as possible to protect every child, no matter the circumstances of their birth?” The answer was the Michigan Family Protection Act, based on the 2017 Uniform Parentage Act, a best-practice model law developed by the bipartisan Uniform Law Commission, which lays out equitable paths to parentage for LGBTQ families and those formed via assisted reproduction.
