Source News Talk
An Irish woman says she and her wife are “so relieved” after becoming one of the first same-sex couples in Ireland to both be legally recognised as parents of their children.
However, she says they can’t celebrate fully until other LGBT+ parents and their children receive the same legal protections they have.
Activist and CEO of Equality for Children Ranae Von Meding appeared on Wednesday in a Dublin court for the final step in a five-year fight
Source BioNews
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples and single men will be able to become parents through surrogacy.
The court had previously ruled that the law allowing only heterosexual couples and single women to access surrogacy was discriminatory (see BioNews 1037) and gave the government a year to revise the legislation. This deadline passed in March this year without changes being made.
Source Edge Media Network
The Namibian government refuses to recognize the daughters of a same-sex couple, effectively stranding one of the fathers in South Africa with the twin infants while the other father fights his own battle to remain in the country, Mamba Online reports.
The girls were born last month in South Africa to a surrogate mother. One of the two men listed as the parents on their infants’ birth certificate, Phillip Lühl, a Namibian citizen, “planned to take them home,” Mamba Online recounts, “to meet their other father, his Mexican-born husband Guillermo Delgado,” as well as the men’s “two-year-old son, Yona.”
“Namibia’s Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security,” the article adds, “is refusing to issue travel documents for the twins to allow them into the country.” The ministry has said it wants “genetic proof” of Lühl’s paternal relationship to the girls.
Source Independent
Tom Daley is sitting on a sofa in a central London hotel suite with his husband, Dustin Lance Black, while their seven-week-old baby, Robbie Ray, snoozes peacefully beside them – and it’s clear the new fathers (both dressed in baby blue) are entirely besotted with their son.
“We don’t ever turn on a TV anymore, we just stare at the little one,” Daley, 24, tells The Independent. “It’s been so crazy. It feels kind of surreal still, the fact that we have a…”
He stops mid-sentence to coo at baby Robbie, which I soon realise is to become a regular occurrence during our interview.
Source Devon Line
Awaiting the arrival of your first child is an anxious time for any parent but even more so for Darren and Ben Tudor-Green because their baby boy is being born via a surrogate.
Yesterday she began being induced so the couple have had to travel from their home in Torquay to Yorkshire where their 23-year-old surrogate lives. This afternoon, Sunday, she was in active labour.
Darren, a health care assistant, has spoken to DevonLive about the highs and lows of their surrogacy journey so far, and has given a revealing insight into what awaits fellow Devon surrogate gay dad-to-be Tom Daley.
Source: New York Law Journal
On Jan. 25, 2018, the Appellate Division, Third Department, issued a significant decision in Matter of Christopher YY v. Jessica ZZ, 2018 NY Slip Op 00495. Underlying the court’s determination is the conundrum which it describes as follows: “Application of existing case law involving different-gender spouses, addressing whether the presumption [of legitimacy] has been rebutted, to a child born to a same-gender married couple is inherently problematic, as it is not currently scientifically possible for same-gender couples to produce a child that is biologically ‘the product of the marriage’ [citations omitted].”
Source: The Times
The parents of a sperm donor have won the right to have contact with their four-year-old biological grandson in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.
Three senior judges ruled that encouraging the boy’s relationship with his paternal family would help him understand the “big picture of his birth story”. The boy was born to a gay female couple, one of whom knew the donor, Lord Justice Peter Jackson said. There was no dispute that he was legally their child but, for the first three years of his life, the natural father had regular contact with the boy.
Source azcentral
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday let stand an Arizona ruling that said paternity should be applied the same way in same-sex marriages as it is in opposite-sex marriages when it comes to determining parental rights.
The court’s refusal to hear the case means Suzan McLaughlin still has parental rights over the child that Kimberly McLaughlin conceived through artificial insemination while the two were married.
Source: News 8
NORWALK, Conn. (WTNH) — Marriage equality has given more same-sex couples confidence to start a family – making local fertility clinics busier than ever. News 8’s Connecticut Families begins a two part look at what’s being called a Gay Baby Boom.
“Someone’s sexuality doesn’t necessarily come into playing regards to their desire to be a parent,” says Dr. Mark Leondires.
Suddenly, 60% of his clients are prospective parents who are gay, many of them male couples.
“For a long time, being a LBGT, we worried about safety,” he explains. “Now, with almost a stamp of validation from our Supreme Court, there’s a sense of safety and you feel like you’re family is going to be safe, as well.”
Source: News 8
NORWALK, Conn. (WTNH)–Marriage equality has given more same-sex couples the confidence to start a family, making local fertility clinics busier than ever. It’s being called a Gay Baby Boom. In Part 2 of a special series, News 8 introduces viewers to a Westport couple, sharing their personal journey to have kids.
“It was something I always did want but didn’t think it was in my realm of possibilities,” says Greg Zola. As a young, gay man, he wasn’t sure he could realize his dream of becoming a parent.
Source: Tuscan.com
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning rejected a bid by a Tucson woman arguing that gay marriages are not legally the same as others, at least when it comes to divorce.
Without comment the justices rejected a bid by Kimberly McLaughlin to deny shared custody of her biological child with Suzan McLaughlin, who she was legally married to at the time of the child’s birth.
Keith Berkshire, Kimberly McLaughlin’s attorney, acknowledged to the justices that two prior rulings had said that all marriages are entitled to the same benefits.
Source: WINFertility
What You Need to Know
There are several reasons to consider using a surrogate to bear your child. Male same-sex couples who want to have a biological child often use a surrogate. Some women are unable to carry and bear a child due to cancer treatment, genetic conditions, having had a hysterectomy, or medical conditions that make it dangerous for them to get pregnant. Sometimes couples use a surrogate when other fertility treatments have not been successful for them or there are problems with the female partner’s uterus. You may have heard of celebrity couples who have used surrogates, such as Jimmy Fallon and his wife Nancy Juvonen, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Here are some facts you need to know before you start on your journey to a family with a surrogate.
Read more
Source: Forbes
Traditional methods aren’t typically available for queer people to grow their families, and growing families non-traditionally can be expensive. What are the options and costs for queer couples and individuals to consider when family planning?
3 Questions Queer People Should Ask Before Growing Our Families – photo by Shutterstock
The cost to raise a child from birth to 18 years old, not including family planning or college, is estimated by the USDA to be about $245,340. For many LGBT families, this is the minimum cost. This is why lack of financial planning when family planning could put queer families at financial risk.
Source: New York Law Journal
A state appeals court in Brooklyn on Wednesday recognized the “presumption of legitimacy”—that a child born during a marriage is presumed to be the two spouses’ child—for a same-sex married couple that had been fighting to stop a male sperm donor from asserting parental rights to their daughter.
The ruling is the third time in the last five months that a state appeals court has made clear that New York’s family law presumption of legitimacy applies to same-sex couples—just as it does to heterosexual couples.
Source: NBCNews
There are more options than ever for same-sex couples looking to expand their families, but it’s not a simple — or affordable — endeavor for many.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and his husband, British Olympic diver Tom Daley, announced on Valentine’s Day that they’re expecting their first child. But while there are more options than ever for same-sex couples looking to expand their families, it’s not a simple — or affordable — endeavor for many.
Source: Cosmopolitan
It allows women to share the motherhood experience from the stage of conception.
More and more lesbian couples are having babies thanks to a super cool fertility treatment known as ‘shared motherhood’. What’s cool about it? Both women are involved in the process, as one’s eggs are used, and the other carries the child. I know, science is awesome.
New research carried out by The London Women’s Clinic, has revealed just how successful and efficient shared motherhood fertility treatment is proving to be. So here’s everything you need to know about the process. Plus, a success story from a couple who’ve become parents this way.
Source: The Hour
The day Mark Leondires first held his baby in his arms, he felt a surge of love and responsibility. Finally his dream of being a father had become reality.
Like countless parents before him, he and his partner learned how to give a bath and change a diaper, guided by a helpful nurse. And like countless parents before him, he marvelled over his newborn son.
