Julie Shapiro

The Law Governing LGBT-Parent Families

This chapter reviews the law relevant to LGBT parents and prospective parents. It pays particular attention to the concept of legal parentage as opposed to social parentage. At the outset, it explores why legal parentage is a critical concept: Legal parents have significant rights and obligations vis-a-vis their children that are not shared by nonparents. Co-parenting relationships with one legal and one nonlegal parent are potentially unstable because of the inequality in legal power. The chapter also discusses the complicated patchwork of laws governing establishment of parental rights faced by LGBT people. These laws vary by state and also by the means used to arrive at parenthood. Lesbians and gay men become parents by a variety of methods, including adoption and assisted reproductive technology, and legal rules in these two domains differ. Further, federal law, which governs certain benefits like Social Security, must be considered. In general, LGBT individuals contemplating parenthood would do well to familiarize themselves with the law in their jurisdictions to ensure that the relationships they forge with their children are adequately protected.

Seeking to Adopt in Florida: Lesbian and Gay Parents Navigate the Legal Process

Utilizing interview data from 22 lesbian and gay parents in Florida, the current exploratory study examined participants’ experiences navigating the legal and social service systems after the repeal of the Florida ban on gay adoption. Participants reported both positive and negative experiences in seeking out lawyers (e.g., some attorneys were accommodating and knowledgeable about gay adoption; others demonstrated discomfort about working with same-sex couples), working with social service agencies in an effort to adopt, and interfacing with the judicial system. This study furthers our knowledge of the lingering effects of discriminatory laws even after such laws have been formally removed, and holds implications for social workers and other practitioners who seek to support lesbian and gay parents and prospective parents as they adjust to the removal of antigay legislation (e.g., regarding marriage or adoption). Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for ensuring that legal and social service practitioners keep up with the rapid pace of legal reform and adapt their practices accordingly.

A Lesbian-Centered Critique of Second-Parent Adoptions

When lesbian couples start families, one woman often begins with all the legal entitlements of parenthood, either by giving birth or by virtue of adopting a child, while the other woman has no legal rights. She is a non-legal parent. Absent legal rights she suffers many critical disadvantages. Second-parent adoptions have been developed to allow lesbians to create families with two-legal parents. They have been widely hailed as a solution to the problem of the non-legal parent. This article argues, however, that for many women they may actually make matters worse. Because some women can use second-parent adoptions, women who do not use them will be at a greater disadvantage. And the community of women who do not use second-parent adoptions may be marked by class, race and other circumstances of disadvantage. As such, second-parent adoptions must be viewed critically rather than as an uncomplicated good.