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parentage

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California Law Protects Our Families

There are thousands of children being raised by non-biological parents, and they deserve to be treated fairly. Yesterday, a California appeals court ruled that these families are protected under California law. A case called E.C. v. J.V. recognized the rights of a non-biological mother who had raised a child with her same-sex partner for five years. The court rightly said that what matters is the relationship that the child and the parent have with each other, even if they aren’t biologically...

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Press Release

NCLR Applauds California Ruling Recognizing Same-Sex Parent of Adopted Children as a Legal Parent

(San Francisco, CA, December 7, 2011)—The case was brought by a woman, known as S.Y., who raised two children with her former same-sex partner. The children were legally adopted only by S.Y.’s partner, S.B. S.Y. did not adopt the children, primarily because she was in the military and could have been discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” if the military learned about her family. The Court of Appeal, applying longstanding California law, ruled last week that S.Y. should be recognized as a...

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Press Release

Legal Experts Urge Supreme Court to Address Discrimination Against Children with Unmarried Adoptive Parents

(San Francisco, August 9, 2011)—Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of leading family law, constitutional law and conflict of laws professors and legal experts asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that Louisiana can discriminate against children born in Louisiana and adopted by unmarried parents in other states by refusing to issue them accurate birth certificates....

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Press Release

NCLR Applauds Florida Officials’ Decision Not to Appeal Adoption Ban Ruling

A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, October 22, 2010)—Today Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced that he would not appeal last month’s ruling by the Third District Court of Appeal striking down Florida’s anti-gay adoption ban as unconstitutional. Florida Governor Charlie Crist and the state’s Department of Children and Families had already announced that they would not appeal the ruling. The ruling will become final after today, and will be...

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Press Release

NCLR Applauds Court Ruling Striking Down Adoption Ban

Court Rules Florida’s Anti-Gay Adoption Law Is Unconstitutional (San Francisco, CA, September 22, 2010)—Today the Third District Court of Appeal in Florida unanimously upheld a 2008 Miami-Dade Circuit Court decision striking down Florida’s anti-gay adoption ban and permitting Martin Gill, a gay man, to adopt two foster children he and his partner have parented for years. Gill is represented by the ACLU of Florida. The plaintiffs presented numerous experts who testified that decades of...

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Cases & Advocacy

Smith v. Quale

Kim Smith and Maggie Quale are two women who were in a committed romantic relationship for over two years. They held a commitment ceremony before family and friends in January 2008. They decided to have children together and, after Maggie was unable to get pregnant using sperm from a sperm bank, they ended up using a friend’s boyfriend as a sperm donor. Kim and Maggie paid the donor $540 for his sperm from their joint bank account. They had twins, and raised them together for...

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Press Release

Happy Holidays Mr. President, From Our Family to Yours

Nation’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender family rights organizations launch historic visibility campaign (San Francisco, CA, December 7, 2009)—Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Our Family Coalition, and COLAGE joined national and regional lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) family rights groups from around the country to launch the “From Our Family to Yours Campaign,” designed to introduce the First Family to thousands of LGBTQ families. In...

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Press Release

New Law Protects Children Born to Same-Sex Parents in the District of Columbia

National Center for Lesbian Rights, Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, and Law Professor Nancy Polikoff applaud new legal protections for children (Washington, DC, July 22, 2009)—The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington (GLAA), and American University law professor Nancy Polikoff applaud the enactment of a new law to protect children born to same-sex parents in the District of Columbia. Councilmember Phil Mendelson was the...

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Press Release

Florida Court of Appeal Holds that Florida Must Honor Second-Parent Adoptions by Same-Sex Couples

(San Francisco, CA, May 13, 2009)—Today, the Florida Court of Appeal unanimously reversed a lower court ruling and held that Florida must give full faith and credit to adoptions granted to same-sex couples by other states, holding that Lara Embry, the plaintiff in the case, “must be given the same rights as any other adoptive parent in Florida.” The court based its decision on the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the federal constitution and a Florida statute requiring Florida to honor adoption...

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Cases & Advocacy

Johnson v. SooHoo

Marilyn Johnson and Nancy SooHoo raised two children together while living in Minnesota. When the couple broke up, Johnson unilaterally cut off contact between SooHoo and the children. The Minnesota Supreme Court held in 2007 that SooHoo was a person “in loco parentis” who had a parent-child relationship with the children, and found that it was in the children’s best interest to have visitation with SooHoo, whom they called “mommy.” In 2008, Johnson moved the...

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