New Law Strengthens Protections for LGBTQ Families; Pending Massachusetts Parentage Act Would do the Same

May 25, 2022 — On Monday, May 23, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law House Bill 22-1153, which enables LGBTQ parents who create families through assisted reproduction (AR) to more equitably establish their parentage, providing greater legal security for Colorado children. In addition to streamlining the process for confirmatory adoptions, the bill does the following to ensure that Colorado’s parentage laws are gender neutral and explicitly inclusive of LGBTQ families:
  • updates terms such as “paternity,” “father” and “mother” to be gender-neutral,
  • makes parentage presumptions gender-inclusive,
  • expands access to establishing parentage through a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Parentage to intended parents through AR, and
  • makes Colorado’s AR provisions gender and marital status neutral so that if you consent to AR you are a parent to the resulting child.
The following statement should be attributed to Patience Crozier, GLAD Senior Staff Attorney: “With the signing of this law, Colorado is ensuring that the children of LGBTQ parents are fully protected under state parentage law, regardless of the circumstances of their birth. These protections are crucial to children’s security and well-being, especially in times of crisis. By updating their parentage statutes to be gender inclusive and marital status neutral, Colorado has made sure that all families are protected equally under the law, and that is cause for celebration. “We hope the Massachusetts Legislature follows suit and passes the Massachusetts Parentage Act, a bipartisan bill to provide comprehensive parentage protections for the Commonwealth’s LGBTQ families—and many others—no matter how they are created. Love makes families—and our laws must protect them.”