The FAMILY Act would establish a national paid leave insurance program. Specifically, it would provide eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of partial income to address their own serious health condition, including pregnancy or childbirth; to deal with the serious health condition of a parent, spouse, domestic partner or child; to care for a new child; and/or specific military care-giving and leave purposes.

On April 25, 2016, NCLR submitted comments supporting the Department of Labor’s proposed rule requiring federal contractors to provide paid sick leave for workers to take time off when they or a family member is sick.

Beginning February 15, 2021, NY will allow parents to conceive children using surrogacy while protecting the rigthts of people acting as surrogates and provide important new protections to parents conceiving through assisted reproduction. Prior to this legislation, New York state had few laws protecting LGBTQ parents. In particular, NY made surrogacy illegal, and unmarried parents could have children through assisted reproductions and be recognized unless they did an adoption. The Child-Parent Security Act modernizes New York parenting laws by recognizing that sperm and egg donors are not parents; recognizing that intended parents using assisted reproduction are parents, including single parents and unmarried couples; allowing intended parents to become parents through surrogacy and recognizing that persons acting as surrogates are not parents. The law also provides some of the strongest protections for the rights of people acting as surrogates in the country. Finally, the law also allows intended parents using assisted reproduction to obtain documentation proving they are a parent for free by filling out forms available at every hospital by expanding the Acknowledgement of Paternity process, which is currently only open to unmarried genetic fathers.

NCLR is proud to have participated heavily in drafting portions of the legislation and advocating in particular for stronger protections for low-income parents, unmarried and single parents, and persons acting as surrogates. NCLR is a member of the Modern Families Coalition advancing the bill.

Few states provide strong protections for people in nonmarital relationships — some states do not even recognize that unmarried couples even have the right to enter into cohabitation agreements. The Uniform Law Commission is currently drafting a Uniform Act, the Economic Rights for Unmarried Cohabitants, to provide a basis for states to provide some recognition for nonmarital relationships. NCLR is an Observer for the drafting committee, providing input and representing the needs of LGBTQ people in nonmarital relationships as the uniform legislation is being drafted.

The Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) is a uniform law that states may enact. There have been several versions of the UPA, but until 2017, it used gendered language and did not address same-sex parents directly. The UPA of 2017 fully protects both married and unmarried same-sex couples, and includes many important provisions protecting LGBTQ parents, including provisions addressing children with multiple parents, parents using at-home insemination, surrogacy, and comprehensive assisted reproduction protections. It also provides protections for low-income parents, including protections for parents using at-home insemination, and access to a free system to establish parental rights available at every hospital in states that adopt the UPA.

NCLR participated in the drafting committee for the UPA of 2017 as an Observer, advocating for full protections for LGBTQ parents, including low-income parents.

As of March 2022, the UPA of 2017 has been enacted in California, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and legislation is pending in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.

California law has long provided important protections for many LGBTQ parents, but many parents and their children were still excluded from protections. California adopted key portions of the Uniform Parentage Act of 2017, particularly those provisions protecting low-income families in AB 2684 (2018). Some provisions of this law went into effect in 2019. On January 1, 2020, provisions went into effect allowing parents of children using assisted reproduction to obtain a free document protecting their parental rights at any hospital after giving birth called a Voluntary Declaration of Parentage, and requiring gamete banks and clinics to allow gamete donors a process to agree to have their identity released to children conceived with their gametes at age 18.

NCLR has long focused on protecting the parental relationships between LGBTQ parents and their children and has established many rights for families across the country through both case law and legislation. NCLR participated as an Observer in the Uniform Law Commission’s committee to draft a Uniform Nonparent Custody Act to ensure that the rights of LGBTQ parents were adequately protected in this Act.

The LGBTQ Family Law Institute is a joint venture of NCLR and the LGBTQ Bar. The Family Law Institute allows experienced LGBTQ family law practitioners to share collective wisdom and to discuss cutting-edge legal strategies for representing members of the LGBTQ community. Members of the Family Law Institute convene in person annually and collaborate regularly via an online listserve. To find out more about membership or to see a directory of Family Law Institute member attorneys, please visit the LGBTQ Bar.

Edi Hogsett and Marcia Neale were a same-sex couple who were together for thirteen years. When their relationship ended, they jointly sought a dissolution of a common law marriage. Later, Marcia argued that she and Edi were not actually married, in part because they could not have legally married prior to marriage equality.

Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks are a married same-sex couple who had twins through surrogacy in Canada, where they live. Each of them is the genetic father of one of the twins, but both fathers are legally-recognized as parents of the twins. Elad is an Israeli citizen and Andrew is a U.S. and Canadian dual citizen. The U.S. Consulate refused to recognize both twins as U.S. citizens because one child is not genetically tied to Andrew.