Monday, February 06, 2006

Obstructions to Healthy Families

As if there aren't enough impediments to creating healthy, well-adjusted families, states are taking away the right of birth parents to permit another person to adopt their child. Usually a parent must terminate her parental rights for her child to be adopted by another person who is not her spouse or the child's other birth parent.

In states like Michigan, which does not recognize same sex unions, this means a lesbian birth mother cannot remain the legal parent of her child AND permit her partner to adopt the child and get legal standing as the other parent.

Aside from being mean spirited and homophobic, this policy also denies the child access to health care and other benefits that her non-birth mother has.

You can read a perfect example in this story. The two mothers in the photo are former clients of mine. Denying one of them legal role of parent to their daughter is just plain idiotic. But that's what the Michigan voters and courts have decided to do.

Read more about the issue (and make a financial contribution to the cause) here:




I'm sending $100 out of my doula fee for my next clients (also a lesbian couple) to this organization. If you work with lesbian or gay families, you might consider doing the same.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I guess this ought to be a two part comment...
A) bienvenue to Team Canada! I aspire to knit as well as my mother.... got a lot of work ahead of me!
B) this post made me so sad... our "new prime minister" would love nothing more than to make this a reality here again! Our couples now have the right to marry, get benefits, rights to adopt each others children... And now, thanks to a turn of events in politics, it may all disappear! A sad state of affairs to the north of you. Many of our "friend/couples" spent the eve of the election making lists of what will change. I hope they are wrong. I really hope that they are wrong!
Thanks for bringing it up, even if I find it depressing ...

2:03 PM  

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