Two (legal) mums and a baby
Monday saw laws come into effect in NSW that give most children with two mothers equal legal status and a birth certificate which reflects their family structure.
An estimated 1000 children in NSW will now have the benefit of two legally recognised parents capable of signing permission notes, approving medical treatment and making parental decisions. Moreover, these children will now be automatically entitled to inheritance and workers’ compensation if their non-biological mother passes away or is injured at work.
The GLRL has been at the forefront of this campaign for close to a decade. In that time, many children of lesbian parents have grown up without this protection and many more have been born to lesbian couples through assisted reproduction.
All of them, as well as those born in the future, can now proudly have both their mothers’ names on their birth certificates. Further reforms are needed to recognise and protect all children with lesbian and gay parents.
Same-sex couples should be eligible to adopt children as a couple, especially in cases where the child is known to them.
Surrogacy laws also need reform and the GLRL is currently working on a submission to the NSW Government on this matter.
There is no doubt that there is more to do and the law must keep up with the reality that same-sex families exist, and legal discrimination disadvantages children in these families.
So while acknowledging that we’ve got a way to go, let’s celebrate this victory for children as well as parents in our community. For too long, children have been treated as second-class citizens because of their parents’ sexuality.
This is a huge step forward for equality. And congratulations to the NSW State Government for giving the majority of families in our community the respect and symbolic acknowledgment that they deserve.
To apply for an amended birth certificate, mothers should contact the NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry on 1300 655 236.
What an aberration! A child should be raised by a father and a mother;and not two lesbians or two homosexuals. The good LORD who created the whole universe made them man and wife (to become father and mother to the children).
If He wanted same sex parents, He would have made them man & man or woman & woman.
Same sex intimacy/union is a severe level of sickness and any child raised in that atmosphere is a potential emotional disaster. Confused and misled! Advocates of gay unions need to have their brains checked.
Editor’s Note: So Sede, if God didn’t make us then who did? Doesn’t the Bible say God made man in his own image? We are men … God made us …. I was also under the impression your God preached love, forgiveness and non-judgment. You can’t pick the rules you want to follow and dismiss the rest. But then again, that seems to be the core difference between christianity and religion. One is do as I say, the other do as I do.
Co-mothers? Two mothers? Get real. A child can only ever have one mother and/or one father regardless of what a piece of paper says.
I rang the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages (BDM) Parramatta about the procedures and the forms to use to give to my rainbow babies’ mothers to use. This would allow the co-mothers to be retrospectively listed on the new birth certificate.
They took my contact details and they will get back to me on Monday as they have no forms, procedures or knowledge.
I think that BDM needs a bit of BDSM, a good flogging might shape them up!
Right now we need to change the adoption laws to allow male/female same-sex couples to adopt NOT just females.