FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Laura Kiritsy (617) 778-6723

September 14, 2011

LGBT Parents Pledge to Play Fair in Parenting and Custody Agreements

Following the re-release last week of Protecting Families: Standards for LGBT Families, a set of 10 guidelines aimed at preventing contentious custody battles between LGBT parents, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and NCLR’s National Family Law Advisory Council launched a campaign to raise awareness of the standards by asking parents and legal practitioners to sign a pledge to uphold them.

GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director Mary L. Bonauto, author of the original standards and a married mother of twins, was the first to sign the pledge.

“These standards are a reminder to parents that protecting our family relationships with every tool available is critical, because the law doesn’t always recognize or respect our families. Children are still best off if their parents take affirmative steps to protect their relationships—especially if their parents split up.” said Bonauto, who has litigated precedent-setting cases on second-parent adoption and de facto parenthood. “I hope all LGBT parents will familiarize themselves with the standards and take them to heart, and I hope that lawyers will make them a part of their standard practice when working with LGBT families.”

Bonauto authored the original standards in collaboration with a group of parents, social workers and lawyers in Boston. First published in 1999 after a series of custody battles involving estranged same-sex couples arose in the courts and the media, they have now been revised and updated by GLAD with assistance from NCLR and its National Family Law Advisory Council to reflect recent changes in relationship recognition laws, including the implementation of marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex couples in many states.

Though there has been great progress over the last 12 years in expanding legal protections for LGBT families, the custody disputes persist, and their resolutions often have consequences beyond individual families. Last year, for example, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in a custody dispute between two women who had ended their relationship that same-sex couples could not jointly adopt in the state. But just last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that a woman could seek custody and visitation rights for the son that she and her ex-partner, who gave birth to the child, raised together for five years until they ended their relationship, even though the woman was prohibited from adopting the child under Nebraska law.

The standards have already been endorsed by a host of LGBT and civil rights organizations: the American Civil Liberties Union, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), Equality Federation, Family Equality Council, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, the National LGBT Bar Association and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.