With LGBTQ families facing ongoing and increasing discrimination across the country, updates to state laws are urgently needed to ensure all children can have a secure legal tie to their parents   Five leading national organizations that advocate for LGBTQ families joined forces on a new report, Relationships at Risk: Why We Need to Update State […]

Gay Parent Magazine profiled NCLR’s Deputy Director and Family Law Director Cathy Sakimura for their July-August 2021 Issue, discussing how to make the world a better place for LGBTQ parents everywhere.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that the City of Philadelphia violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by failing to give Catholic Social Services (CSS) an exemption from the nondiscrimination provision in city contracts, even though the contract authorized exemptions and the City had granted […]

DETROIT, MI – Yesterday, the Michigan Court of Appeals recognized two unmarried women as parents where one parent is a genetic parent and the other parent gave birth. LaNesha Matthews and Kyresha LeFever were a same-sex couple who had twins together using assisted reproduction. The children were conceived through in vitro fertilization using Kyresha’s eggs, […]

In Henderson v. Box, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that marriage equality is the law of the land and that states must provide the same rights to same-sex and different-sex spouses.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the United States Supreme Court denied a Petition for Certiorari in Box v. Henderson, a case out of Indiana about the state’s obligation to recognize same-sex spouses and different-sex spouses equally on their children’s birth certificates.  “We are so happy for our clients, and other same-sex parents and their children in […]

“Perseverance in almost any plan is better than fickleness and fluctuation”—Alexander Hamilton When we adopted our NCLR tag line—”The audacity to fight for justice, the perseverance to win”—it was before President Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope” and years before the cultural phenomenon that is “Hamilton” ushered in a refreshed examination of Alexander Hamilton’s writings. […]

By a slim margin, this nation has elected a demagogue who trafficked in bigotry, stoked racist hatred and normalized misogyny. The election of Donald Trump as President threatens basic principles of human dignity and justice. Many of our most cherished values—inclusion, honoring difference, embracing equality, dismantling oppressive systems—are in jeopardy, but we will not be […]

“…Later that night I held an atlas in my lap ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered where does it hurt? it answered everywhere everywhere everywhere” —Warsan Shire   Two days after a sniper killed five Dallas police officers, this poem, by expat Somali poet Warsan Shire, who came to world’s attention when […]

Monday, in a ruling that will protect LGBTQ parents across the country, the U.S. Supreme Court sharply rebuked the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to recognize a Georgia adoption by a lesbian mother, our client. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in our case was unusual in three ways. First, it reversed the Alabama Supreme Court’s […]

Beginning January 1, 2016, California law will fully protect families conceiving children through assisted reproduction, regardless of how they conceive. California law already recognized many families using assisted reproduction, but it only provided protections to certain families. Assembly Bill 960—signed into law by California Gov. Jerry Brown in late 2015—provides several important new protections to […]

I just did something I thought I would never do. I resigned my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and asked that my name be removed from the records. Even at the height of church involvement in the passage of Proposition 8 in California, I never seriously considered removing […]

On May 19, 2015, Every Child Deserves A Family Act (ECDF) was re-introduced in congress by Senator Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Lewis (D-GA 5th) and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL 27th). The bill was introduced first in 2009 and has been re-introduced in each congress since. Each year it garners more support but has yet to be enacted. […]

Involuntary part-time work. Unpredictable schedules. Fear of employer retaliation for taking time away to care for a sick child. These are all incompatible with reproductive justice, and yet this describes the current employment situation for many low-income workers. This is particularly true for women, since women are still disproportionately the primary caregivers, while also acting […]

Hobby Lobby is not the beginning—nor  the end—of laws controlling the reproductive choices of oppressed groups and privileging the reproductive choices of a select few. Our legal system has a long and continuing history of restricting the reproductive choices of women, especially American Indian women, other women of color, low-income women, and people with disabilities. These […]

November is National Adoption Month, and there are currently more LGBTQ parents waiting to adopt than there are children in the foster system. Unfortunately, some LGBTQ couples are denied the right to parent—and children are denied a home—because of discriminatory state policies governing same-sex adoption, and policies that allow adoption agencies to give preference to […]

Today, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 460, which clarifies that insurance coverage of fertility treatments must be offered and provided equally to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender prospective parents, who continue to face discrimination in receiving equal coverage for these services. Even though California law prohibits discrimination in insurance generally, same-sex couples, transgender […]

The President’s announcement that he supports marriage equality has encouraged other high- profile leaders and organizations to express their support for marriage equality, most notably the NAACP, which decided in a near-unanimous vote to pass a resolution officially supporting marriage equality. The President also adds his voice to a growing chorus of people of faith […]

Since NCLR’s founding 35 years ago, we have worked to advance family law for LGBTQ people and their families. NCLR has helped change the law in numerous states over the years, including prohibiting courts from taking custody away from a parent just because of his or her sexual orientation, allowing same-sex couples to adopt, ensuring […]

Many times, when the anti-gay industry pops out with a new absurd lie, I simply sigh, remind myself of the arc of history, and move on. But the latest vicious volley landed, quite literally, too close to home. Earlier this week, a University of Texas sociologist named Mark Regnerus published a paper purporting to show […]