FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 7, 2004

Maine High Court Upholds Lesbian Parent’s Legal Rights

(MAINE) In a case of first impression, Maine’s highest court (the Law Court) ruled unanimously that a woman who jointly planned for and raised a son with her former female partner, but who has no biological or adoptive relationship with him, is as a parent for the purposes of determining who has legal parental rights and responsibilities for him.

“This ruling is a common-sense acknowledgement that children in all families need the love and commitment provided by their parents, whether those parents are biologically or adoptively- related to them or not,” said Mary L. Bonauto, an attorney with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders who represented C.E.W., along with attorney Patricia A. Peard of Portland. “It would have been tragic if the Court had discounted one of the parents this child has known his entire life. This ruling starts to put children of gay and lesbian couples on an more equal footing with children of non-gay parents because it assures that (at least some of them) will have a chance to continue their relationship with their parents even if the parents separate.”

C.E.W. and D.E.W. had been together two years when they had their son. His name reflects both of their family names and he was welcomed into both of their extended families. Both women cared for him in every way, and he calls C.E.W., the non-birth parent, his “omma” or other mother. To cement their commitment to raise him jointly, they signed a joint parenting agreement assuring that each would be involved in his life no matter what their circumstances, and also obtained a legal co-guardianship order so that C.E.W. would have some legal rights to make medical and school decisions for their son. C.E.W. brought the case to establish her rights and responsibilities toward her son after D.E.W. went to the Probate Court in 2000 to end the co-guardianship, a move that would have allowed D.E.W. to bar contact between C.E.W. and their son.

In its opinion, the Court noted that the Maine courts have recognized de facto parental rights “for persons who have played an unusual and significant parent-like role in a child’s life” in several opinions over the last sixty years. The Court stated that de facto parents should be limited to “those adults who have fully and completely undertaken a permanent, unequivocal, committed, and responsible parental role in the child’s life.”

“The Court rightly acknowledged that its doors must be open to all families, including gay and lesbian families,” said Patricia A. Peard, a former GLAD Board Member and regular cooperating attorney, who practices at Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson in Portland. “It’s wonderful that the law actually has caught up with the reality of children’s lives,” she added.

Maine’s ruling joins similar rulings in other states, including Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Courts in each of these states have upheld the right of ongoing contact in situations like the one in Maine where a person has undertaken the responsibilities of parenting with the consent of the “legal” parent. The national and highly influential American Law Institute has recommended states recognize “de facto” and other parental relationships based on conduct rather than merely on marriage and biology.

Several Maine professional organizations, including the Maine Psychological Association, the Children’s Alliance of Maine, the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Maine Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, among others, submitted a friend of the court brief addressing the scientific consensus that children raised by gay and lesbian parents are developmentally normal in every way.

C.E.W. v. D.E.W., Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Decision 2004 ME 43, April 6, 2004