Meet me in SanFrancisco with a flower in your hair

….wow.

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2005/08/22/1>

Christopher Curtis, PlanetOut Network
Monday, August 22, 2005 / 01:10 PM

On Monday the California Supreme Court strengthened the custody rights of non-biological parents in same-sex relationships.

The rulings dealt with three separate cases in which mothers bore children through some form of artificial reproduction.

In one case, Elisa Maria B. and her partner, Emily B., decided to have children using the same sperm donor. Elisa gave birth to a boy in 1997, and a year later Emily gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.

In 1999 the couple separated.

Elisa agreed to support the twins but stopped making payments after 18 months. Since Emily was on welfare, the county sued Elisa to recover its support payments.

A Superior Court judge ordered Elisa to pay $1,815 a month, reasoning that since she had intended to bring the children into the world, she should be held to the same standard as a man.

In 2004 the Court of Appeal in Sacramento disagreed, noting the couple did not register as domestic partners.

But on Monday, the California Supreme Court reversed that ruling, stating, “We conclude that a woman who agreed to raise children with her lesbian partner, supported her partner’s artificial insemination using an anonymous donor, and received the resulting twin children into her home and held them out as her own, is the children’s parent under the Uniform Parentage Act and has an obligation to support them.”

During a press conference held by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) in San Francisco, Emily B. told reporters it was an “Incredible day for same-sex parents in state of California.”

Emily B. added the ruling meant she would be able to get off welfare and food stamps. She told reporters her partner owed her $100,000 in child support.

NCLR staff attorney Courtney Joslin, who helped represent Emily B., said, “We are enormously elated by the decision today.”

The California Supreme Court ruling also affected two other cases. In one case, a woman who supplied her eggs to her same-sex partner and helped raise their child is now legally considered a parent. Also the court ruled that a lesbian mother could not break a pre-birth agreement with her ex-partner to share parental responsibilities.

“This is the first time a court in this country has reached this kind of ruling,” Joslin said.

Jennifer C. Pizer, senior counsel in Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office in Los Angeles, praised the rulings. “Today’s decisions build on a solid foundation of California statutory and common law intended to protect California’s children, regardless of the sexual orientation of their parents.”

Pizer contrasted the court’s ruling against three petitions for ballot initiatives that would ban same-sex marriage in California and strip domestic partner rights.

“Though the court issued positive rulings, the rights of lesbian and gay parents in California are under attack,” she said. “With today’s rulings, the Supreme Court has cast a bright light on why the proposed constitutional amendment initiatives to permanently withhold marriage from same-sex couples and to eliminate most legal protections for domestic partners are discriminatory, anti-family and entirely wrong-headed.”