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Multi ethnic friends with kid

Parenting

Although we have made great strides in protecting the rights of LGBTQ people and their families, LGBTQ parents continue to face significant discrimination. Transgender parents in particular still lose custody of their children at alarming rates simply because of their gender.

Through legislation and impact litigation, NCLR works to ensure that LGBTQ parents and their children are fully recognized as families under the law, including low-income parents using low-cost assisted reproduction, both married and unmarried parents, families with more than two parents, adoptive parents, and parents conceiving using surrogacy. At the same time, we advocate for greater protections for the health and rights of people acting as surrogates and egg donors.

We also represent LGBTQ parents facing discrimination based solely on their gender or sexual orientation, and our Transgender Youth Project works to protect transgender and gender nonconforming children whose parents do not agree to affirm their identities.

Advocacy

Legislation & Policy

Uniform Parentage Act of 2017

Nationwide

The Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) is a uniform law that states may enact. There have been several versions of the UPA, but until 2017, it used gendered language and did not address same-sex parents directly. The UPA of 2017 fully protects both married and unmarried same-sex couples, and includes many important provisions protecting LGBTQ parents, including provisions addressing children with multiple parents, parents using at-home insemination, surrogacy, and comprehensive assisted reproduction protections. It also provides protections for low-income parents, including protections for parents using at-home insemination, and access to a free system to establish parental rights available at every hospital in states that adopt the UPA.

NCLR participated in the drafting committee for the UPA of 2017 as an Observer, advocating for full protections for LGBTQ parents, including low-income parents.

As of March 2022, the UPA of 2017 has been enacted in California, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and legislation is pending in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.

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Cases & Advocacy

Boe v. Marshall

Alabama

On April 8, 2022, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law SB 184. The law directly targets transgender adolescents and their families by imposing criminal penalties on any individual, including parents and healthcare providers, who facilitate or provide essential medical care to transgender adolescents for the treatment of gender dysphoria.

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Resources

Press Release

Publications

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