PAPA, CAN YOU HEAR ME? PAPA, ARE YOU ALLOWED TO SEE ME?
By Jerome Cleary
Last week the California Supreme Court ruled that both members of a lesbian couple who plan for and raise a child born to either of them should be considered the child's mothers even after their relationship ends. The court stepped largely into uncharted legal territory concerning same-sex couples and parenting, and issued decisions in three cases.
The Supreme Court ended up ruling that women whose partners gave birth had parental rights/obligations in all three cases.
The three cases involved petition to establish parental rights, request for child support and an attack on a lower court ruling issued before a child's birth that the child should have two women listed as parents on her birth certificate. The Supreme Court ruled: "We perceive no reason why both parents of a child cannot be women."
The woman who sued to establish her parental rights celebrated the court’s decision, and we should be celebrating the common sense in keeping the faith, in wanting to continue to raise a child even after a relationship ends.
With this ruling, lesbians and gays are finally getting, piece by piece, the same rights as everyone else. While the religious right and the Christian Coalition continue to mount their attack against people who they consider not to be the right kinds of people who should marry or have children, common sense continues now to prevail.
Fortunately, it's 2005 and there are enough civil rights attorneys always ready to file a case and go to bat for the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender who have had their civil rights violated. I begin to wonder if hundreds of years from now members of society will shake their heads in disbelief that there was such an on-going battle of man-against-man/wo-man-against-woman for the common rights to just live the life someone desires.
Last week’s decision considered the separate question of whether the law could require former members of such couples to assume parental rights and obligations just like heterosexuals have enjoyed for what now seems like forever. The cases all involved unorthodox conceptions, and the Supreme Court struggled to apply sometimes inapt state laws to them. Unfortunately, as these new Supreme Court decisions now finally break new ground, advocates on both sides agreed that the rulings will rile attorneys further for groups defending what they call traditional values.
So what could be more traditional than honoring a pact you make with a child as a parent, no matter who the parents are and how the parental relationships end or transform to continue being a parent.
It's amazing that we have come so far in civilization and strayed always a bit farther from our ultimate path: peace, freedom and equal rights. Yet religious zealots will continue to condemn, demand, hate and alienate all in the name of religion. Religious fanatics continue to see gays and lesbians as separate beings and believe that we are continuing to destroy and undermine the traditional family.
Ultimately, however, those attacks from the right may only serve to help all families see everyone as equal. With hope and desire, maybe the fortitude of optimism and the American spirit will continue to tell us: Yes,we can.
Jerome Cleary is a writer, TV talk show host and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
Last week the California Supreme Court ruled that both members of a lesbian couple who plan for and raise a child born to either of them should be considered the child's mothers even after their relationship ends. The court stepped largely into uncharted legal territory concerning same-sex couples and parenting, and issued decisions in three cases.
The Supreme Court ended up ruling that women whose partners gave birth had parental rights/obligations in all three cases.
The three cases involved petition to establish parental rights, request for child support and an attack on a lower court ruling issued before a child's birth that the child should have two women listed as parents on her birth certificate. The Supreme Court ruled: "We perceive no reason why both parents of a child cannot be women."
The woman who sued to establish her parental rights celebrated the court’s decision, and we should be celebrating the common sense in keeping the faith, in wanting to continue to raise a child even after a relationship ends.
With this ruling, lesbians and gays are finally getting, piece by piece, the same rights as everyone else. While the religious right and the Christian Coalition continue to mount their attack against people who they consider not to be the right kinds of people who should marry or have children, common sense continues now to prevail.
Fortunately, it's 2005 and there are enough civil rights attorneys always ready to file a case and go to bat for the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender who have had their civil rights violated. I begin to wonder if hundreds of years from now members of society will shake their heads in disbelief that there was such an on-going battle of man-against-man/wo-man-against-woman for the common rights to just live the life someone desires.
Last week’s decision considered the separate question of whether the law could require former members of such couples to assume parental rights and obligations just like heterosexuals have enjoyed for what now seems like forever. The cases all involved unorthodox conceptions, and the Supreme Court struggled to apply sometimes inapt state laws to them. Unfortunately, as these new Supreme Court decisions now finally break new ground, advocates on both sides agreed that the rulings will rile attorneys further for groups defending what they call traditional values.
So what could be more traditional than honoring a pact you make with a child as a parent, no matter who the parents are and how the parental relationships end or transform to continue being a parent.
It's amazing that we have come so far in civilization and strayed always a bit farther from our ultimate path: peace, freedom and equal rights. Yet religious zealots will continue to condemn, demand, hate and alienate all in the name of religion. Religious fanatics continue to see gays and lesbians as separate beings and believe that we are continuing to destroy and undermine the traditional family.
Ultimately, however, those attacks from the right may only serve to help all families see everyone as equal. With hope and desire, maybe the fortitude of optimism and the American spirit will continue to tell us: Yes,we can.
Jerome Cleary is a writer, TV talk show host and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
posted by JeromeCleary @ 7:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home