The legalization of same-sex marriage has not answered all of the questions surrounding same-sex parental rights in the courts. Last week, the Arizona Court of Appeals issued a ruling in a same-sex custody battle that could be a setback for gay rights.
A judge ruled in that case that the former spouse of a woman who gave birth via artificial insemination is not the child’s legal parent. State laws, the court said, only apply to parental legality when one of the parents is a man.
This comes after another ruling from the Court of Appeals said the exact opposite thing — that the legality of gay marriage means parents do not have to be gender specific. That case is set to be heard in the state Supreme Court later this morning.
So as courts decide state by state how same-sex families will be treated by the law, how should same-sex couples proceed? For that, we turn to Douglas NeJaime, an expert in same-sex family law with UCLA’s School of Law.
