Articles Posted in Same sex marriage & divorce

As previously discussed on this blog, New York’s highest court recently issued the landmark New York child custody decision Matter of Brooke S.B., which expanded the definition of a “parent” under Section 70 of the New York Domestic Relations Law. The court ruled that a same-sex partner of a child’s biological parent could be considered a “parent,” if the parties agreed to share child-raising responsibilities. Following that ruling, a New York court decided Gunn v. Hamilton, which applied Matter of Brooke S.B. to determine custody of a same-sex couple’s adopted child.

The parties’ relationship began in 2007 and ended in 2009. During the course of their relationship, they planned to adopt and raise a child together. However, before they could adopt a child, the relationship deteriorated. In fact, the parties memorialized the breakup with a separation agreement, which was finalized in May 2010.

In the next year, the respondent moved forward with the adoption process and finalized the adoption in August 2011. When the respondent and her adopted child returned to New York, the petitioner became involved in the child’s life. The parties never entered into a formal custody sharing agreement, and when the respondent decided to move from New York to England, the petitioner filed a lawsuit for joint custody, the setting of a visitation schedule, and ancillary relief.

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Under New York law, both of a child’s parents have rights regarding custody and visitation, as well as obligations regarding support. As the legal landscape regarding marriage changes and evolves, the definition of “parent” has also evolved. More than 20 years ago, the New York Court of Appeals held in Alison D. v. Virginia M. that only biological or adoptive parents have standing to petition for visitation. In the summer of 2016, the court overturned this precedent in Matter of Brooke S.B., allowing the former same-sex partner of a child’s biological mother to petition for visitation. The petitioner had a longstanding relationship with the child that continued for years after her relationship with the biological mother ended, and the court recognized that she could be considered a “parent” under the law.

Section 70 of the New York Domestic Relations Law states that “either parent” of a child may petition a court to make orders regarding custody and visitation rights. The statute does not, however, provide a distinct definition of a “parent.” In 1991, the Court of Appeals ruled in Alison D. that a “biological stranger to a child” is not a “parent” within the meaning of § 70 and therefore lacks standing to seek visitation rights.

The petitioner in Alison D. was involved in a romantic relationship with the respondent. They decided to have a child together, and the respondent conceived via artificial insemination. She gave birth to a boy in July 1981. The child took the petitioner’s last name, despite the lack of any legal relationship between them. The petitioner and respondent ended their relationship in 1983, but they worked out an agreement for visitation and support payments by the petitioner. This lasted several years, but eventually the respondent cut off the petitioner’s access to the child. The petitioner sought a court order under § 70 for visitation. Even though the child knew both the respondent and the petitioner as “Mommy,” the court denied the petition for lack of standing.

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The right of same-sex couples to marry has been the law of the land throughout the United State for almost two years, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. While the court noted in Obergefell that most states already allowed adoption and fostering by same-sex couples and gay or lesbian individuals, some states continue to prohibit it. The Nebraska Supreme Court recently issued a decision, Stewart v. Heineman, overturning a state policy prohibiting gay and lesbian people from serving as foster parents. While this ruling only applies to Nebraska, it is another important step forward for the rights of same-sex couples.

A federal district court struck down a Mississippi law banning adoption by same-sex couples last year, but no nationwide standard yet applies in this regard. A U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2016, E.L. v. V.L., held that states must recognize out-of-state adoptions by same-sex couples, but the Supreme Court has not considered the constitutionality of gay adoption or gay fostering bans within a state. A Nebraska policy regarding fostering therefore remained in effect after both Obergefell and E.L.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued an administrative memorandum in 1995, titled Memo 1-95, directing the department not to make foster placements “in the homes of persons who identify themselves as homosexuals.” The memo further directed the department not to license such persons as foster homes. According to the Nebraska Supreme Court’s decision in Stewart, state officials had generally concluded that Memo 1-95 was unenforceable with regard to licensing.

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The U.S. legal system has made numerous recent advances regarding the legal recognition of “non-traditional” family relationships. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges struck down laws prohibiting same-sex marriage across the country. This has led to changes in the law regarding the custody rights of people who have helped raise a child but are not a biological parent of the child. The New York Court of Appeals issued an important ruling in 2016 that effectively expanded the definition of “parent” to include same-sex partners of a biological parent. In early March 2017, a New York court granted custody of a child to three people who had raised the child together while involved in a committed polyamorous relationship—sometimes referred to as a “throuple.” The judge cited the child’s own statements in the ruling, noting that the child knows “two women as his mother” and that all three had raised him “in a loving environment.”

Prior to 2016, New York law was based on a 1991 Court of Appeals decision, Alison D. v. Virginia M., which held that someone who is not a child’s biological parent lacks standing to sue for custody. The case involved a lesbian couple who had a child through artificial insemination. The respondent gave birth to the child, and she and the petitioner “jointly cared for and made decisions regarding the child” for several years. After the relationship ended, the respondent gradually restricted the petitioner’s access to the child until she was cut off entirely. The petitioner sued for custody rights, but the court held that she lacked standing as a “parent” under § 70 of the Domestic Relations Law. A dissenting justice criticized the court’s reliance on “biology as the key to visitation rights.”

The dissent in Alison D. noted that the holding would “affect a wide spectrum of relationships” beyond the millions of children of same-sex parents, such as step-parent relationships. Obergefell dealt with some of the issues brought up in Alison D. by effectively legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. The Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses allows same-sex couples to marry. In August 2016, the New York Court of Appeals reversed Alison D. in two consolidated cases, Matter of Brooke S.B. and Matter of Estrellita A. The court noted that Obergefell specifically mentioned the benefits of marriage equality for “the children being raised by those couples.”

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