UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Sperm Donor Liability | A New Trend?

It has not been unusual for gay and lesbian couples to arrange privately for surrogacy or for a donation of sperm from a friend or third party in order for a couple to inseminate one of the lesbian partners so that they can bring children into their family. A recent case involving the latter method of procreation may result in lesbian partners being forced to use clinics approved for A.R.T. rather than an informal gift from a friend or acquaintance.

A Kansas man, William Marotta, donated sperm to a lesbian couple after answering a Craigslist ad placed online by Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner. Bauer and Schreiner were seeking a sperm donor. After exchanging emails and meeting, the three signed an agreement relieving Marotta of any financial or paternal responsibility. The couple accomplished the artificial insemination themselves using a syringe, and Schreiner eventually became pregnant. Late last year, after she and Bauer broke up, because Kansas does not recognise same-sex marriage, Schreiner, who bore the child, was awarded sole custody, Bauer was not liable for  child support, and Schreiner applied for Title IV-D benefits. So the state came after Marotta for child support.

Surrogacy | One Woman's Way of Making Ends Meet

I've written quite a bit about non-traditional familes. An opinion piece in today's New York Times made me far more aware about surrogacy issues. This is not something that would ever have occurred to me. I'm not saying it's terrible. To me, it is very thought-provoking in this day and age of increasing numbers of non-traditional families.

In Sunday's New York Times, Susan Straight wrote about her neighbor for whom surrogacy is a way of helping her family pay day-to-day bills. Straight wrote:

Second U.S. Court of Appeals Ruling that DOMA is Unconstitutional

Timothy Williams, writing on October 18, 2012 in the New York Times, details the ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sitting in Manhattan, that DOMA, the federal statute defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, unlawfully discriminates against same-sex married couples by denying them equal federal benefits.

The Second Circuit Court is the second federal appeals court to reject a central portion of the federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act. Last May, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, also held DOMA unconstitutional.

Two-Parent Adoptions | Couple Challenges Michigan Law

A lesbian couple from Oakland County urged a federal judge Wednesday, August 29th, to allow them to jointly adopt three children despite a Michigan law that prevents unmarried couples from doing so. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a motion to dismiss the suit because Michigan does not allow unmarried people to jointly adopt children.

 U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman delayed his ruling by 10 days, suggesting that the couple amend their lawsuit to launch a frontal assault on the legal barrier that prevents them from jointly adopting -- Michigan's constitutional amendment that prohibits same-sex couples from marrying.

The parents involved are April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse.  DeBoer is a neonatal nurse and Rowse is an emergency room nurse. They have been together for 10 years. Rowse adopted two boys who were abandoned by their mothers, and DeBoer adopted a girl whose mother surrendered her.

Difficulties Establishing & Protecting Legal Family Ties | Same Sex Couples

The New York Times took a look at the obstacles faced by same sex couples attempting to establish legal ties to children. With A.R.T., many lesbian couples choose to have children. In some states, where same-sex unions are recognized by law, some obstacles are not present--school enrollments, for example. In Your Money, the NY Times explores some of the benefits that these couples have to give up. Included is the right to survivor benefits from Social Security. Some couples have to give up rights to retirement plans of a partner.

When the couple has minor children, how do couples protect their children? The article discusses the challenges faced by these parents and how some choose to accomplish this.

More than Two Legal Parents for a Child?

Most states, including Michigan, do not permit a child to have more than two legal parents. However, recognizing the growing number of alternative families, in rent years, Delaware and the District of Columbia have passed laws that allow for third “de facto parents.” De facto parents have the same rights and responsibilities toward their children as adoptive parents.

Additionally, over the last decade several states, including Oregon and Massachusetts, have also recognized three legal parents in a handful of cases.

Pending legislation in California would allow judges to recognize more than two legal parents for a given child, opening the door for alternative families to seek legal recognition of their relationships. Mark Leno, the state senator who sponsored the bill, says that “There are literally scores of different families and circumstances.” The bill would require a best interests of the child hearing before any order extending parental rights to anyone other than the legal parent or legal parents.

You may read Measure Opens Door to Three Parents, or Four here. Byline: Ian Lovett, Published
July 13, 2012

Other articles on alternative families may be read here on this blog.

Episcopal Church Approves Official Liturgy for Blessing Same-sex Unions

The Episcopal Church on Tuesday approved an official liturgy for blessing same-sex unions, enabling priests who have the approval of their bishops to bestow the church’s blessing on gay couples whether they live in a state where same-sex marriage is legal or not. The official liturgy, called “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant” is as follows:

LGBT Rights in the US, State by State

The Guardian has published some very interesting data regarding the civil rights (by statute) for gay, lesbian and transgender people on a range of issues, including marriage, hospital visitation, adoption, housing, employment and school bullying. The charts are illuminating, to say the least. Laws in America have evolved to allow — but in some cases ban — rights for LGBT folks on those issues.

The interactive charts published by the Guardian show the trends. By region, the Midwest and the Southeast are the most conservative and offer LGBT folks the least.

To view these interactive charts online, click here.

Bully & Bullying: Two New Films Explore the Issue

Two new films about bullying--kids tormenting other kids--are being talked about. Let's hope  parents, teachers and especially kids will see these movies. The films are "Hunger Games" and "Bully."

NPR said this week that one of the films, a documentary, may have a hard time getting into theaters. Because the F-word is used six times in the film, the review board refused to rate the film PG-13, instead giving it an "R" rating. This means that none of the kids in the film could even get into a theater where it is being shown! NPR sums up the film as follows:

The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy | Modern Family of Choice & Its Ethical Dilemma

Ruth Padawer has written a fascinating article, “The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy,” recently published in the New York Times Magazine section. I have to say Padawer literally took my breath away. There are so many questions; the choices are so personal. The reduction of a multiple pregnancy involves ethical, religious, social, moral, emotional and personal dilemmas. Obviously, ultimately, the choice is made by the prospective parents.

The reduction of a pregnancy from twins to a singular child, however, is a procedure only recently available. Padawer writes of young and not-so-young mothers pregnant with twins each of whom chooses, for various reasons, to have reduction in the pregnancy so that she will bear only one child. Most often, this procedure is sought after fertility treatments.

Headaches for Same-Sex Couples | WSJ Family Values Section

On July 9, 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported in its Family Values section the following:

"Same-sex couples can get married in five states and the District of Columbia—and in New York starting July 25. But the happily-ever-after part doesn't necessarily extend to their personal finances.

Such couples still can't file a joint federal tax return, share retirement benefits, shield each other's assets from estate taxes or benefit from many other tax breaks provided through federal law.
As a result, same-sex couples who marry have to stay on guard, doing even more financial and legal planning, in some cases, than those who don't choose to tie the knot."

Increase in Numbers of Same-Sex Couples Adopting Children

The New York Times reports that the incidence of same-sex couples adopting children has increased sharply. Although only two states — Utah and Mississippi prohibit same-sex couples from adopting, they face significant legal hurdles in about half of all other states. Primarily, this is because they cannot legally marry in those states. Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, was quoted as saying that about 19 percent of same-sex couples raising children reported having an adopted child in the house in 2009, up from just 8 percent in 2000.

Advocates for gay families say are two distinct trends are reasons for the increase in these adoptions:  the need for homes for children currently waiting for adoption —(now about 115,000 in the United States) and the increased acceptance of gays and lesbians in American society.

As Surrogacy Becomes More Popular, Legal Problems Proliferate

Surrogacy is not legal in Michigan, however laws in many states permit surrogate mothers to carry babies created by ART (assisted reproductive technology) or IVF (in vitro reproduction). Many couples want a child of their own, but for one reason or another, cannot do it on their own. Sean and Carolyn Savage, about whom I wrote the other day, could not use their own remaining embryos after Carolyn had successfully (albeit with great difficulty and cost—emotionally, physically and financially) carried to term another couple’s baby when Carolyn’s fertility doctor implanted the wrong embryos. Carolyn simply could not physically manage another pregnancy. So Sean and Carolyn looked for and found a surrogate who was willing to carry their own embryos. Sadly, two pregnancies miscarried and the Savages were left without an addition to their family of five.

Other couples, LGBTs, also want a child or children of their own. Some lesbian couples can accomplish a pregnancy with one being the birth mother using her own eggs and using donor sperm.

Parent One, Parent Two | Passport reform

The Washington Post quoted official sources in the State Department on January 7th as stating that U.S. passport application forms will be made "gender neutral" by removing references to mother and father in favor of language that describes one's parentage somewhat less tenderly as Parent One and Parent Two, "in recognition of different types of families."

You may read Parent One, Parent Two to replace references to mother, father on passport forms, Sheridan, Mary Beth and O'Keefe, Ed, Washington Post, January 7, 2011. A one-time registration may be required.

Do you need help with a family law case? Find a Michigan Family Lawyer near you.

One brave 14-year-old takes on the school board in Howell, Michigan

Oh, what he said. At a school-board meeting last Friday, openly gay 14-year-old high-school student Graham Taylor came to the defense of Jay McDowell, a teacher in Howell, Michigan. McDowell was temporarily suspended without pay earlier this month after telling a student wearing a Confederate flag and a student making anti-gay remarks to get out of his class.  Graham Taylor eloquently thanked the teacher for doing "an amazing thing" in a town home to the KKK, and urged the school board to give McDowell his pay and reverse the disciplinary actions. The inspiring video has made its way around the Internet. I am awed by the poise, the confidence and the activism of this young man.

 

How can parents help prevent bullying? LGBT teens need survival tools

In light of recent incidents of LGBT bullying and assaults, AP reporter Beth Harpaz writes:

"With bullying, teen suicides and harassment of gay teenagers making headlines, parents may be wondering what role they can play in discouraging kids from tormenting others whom they perceive as different.

"Homosexuality remains a controversial issue in some communities. But nobody wants to see their child victimized. And nobody wants their kid involved in an incident that might lead a peer to hurt himself or herself."

Keeping LGBT Students safe at school

The National Education Association has addressed the issue of school environment and safety for LGBT students in a brief by Stuart Biegal and Sheila James Kuehl. Additionally, in an article on the NEA website by Mary Ellen Flannery and Ilana Kowarski, two recent suicides of LGBT students are discussed in connection with the release of the brief.

One of these students jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge. A gay California teen hung himself from a backyard tree. The authors of a new policy brief addressing safe schools for gay and lesbian students reported their recommendations last week to an audience of educators and advocates at the National Education Association.