“While Massachusetts now recognizes that same-sex, non-birth parents are full, legal parents, the state has dragged its feet in making that status a reality,” says Polly Crozier, GLTBQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) senior staff attorney.
“Babies keep coming into the world, and their parents still don’t have the right tools to establish their legal relationship. Parents are frustrated and children are legally unprotected,” Crozier says.
Take, for example, the case of Karen Partaken who was unable to complete a birth certificate worksheet and Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage (VAP) form because she is a woman. The reason was simply that the forms had yet to be updated to reflect the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruling last year in Partanen v. Gallagher, which basically establishes that children born to unmarried same-sex couples and their parents have the same rights as those in heterosexual-parented families.
“Karen’s case illustrates how the courts and the law are catching up to today’s families, but implementation is where the rubber hits the road,” said Crozier. “We’re calling on the state to step up, cut through the bureaucracy, and make the Voluntary Acknowledgement of Parentage form immediately available to same-sex couples.”
Putting words into action, GLAD issued a letter to the state’s Department of Public health on behalf the the couple. “Simply put,” the letter read, “there are no barriers under Massachusetts or Federal law to this family executing and submitting a Massachusetts VAP, and they must be able to access this simple, affordable, efficient and administrative route to parentage. Although it would be ideal for the registry to have updated their VAP form already to be gender and genetic status neutral in compliance with Massachusetts law, the fact that the form is outdated should be no barrier to securing this child’s parentage.”
To follow the progress of this and other GLAD-championed initiatives, visit glad.org.
