Defense of Marriage Act ruled unconstitutional

[Scruit]

The way I see it there are two legal purposes for a birth certificate:

1) Record of genetic lineage

2) Establishing who has parental rights

It used to be that that those two purposes were served by a single pair of names, for the most part. Nowadays things are different.

I'm all for keeping the birth certificate as genetic lineage and using adoption papers to establish parental rights IF the adoption process is streamlined under these circumstances. The adoption process can cost anywhere from $5k to $40k typically - parents who use donated eggs/sperm etc families should not have to shell out up to $40k more to just have their parent rights documented. Without this legal documentation the parent who is not on the BC cannot get a passport for the while, travel internationally with the child, be next-of-kin at a hospital or make surgery decisions without a power-of-attorney.

I'd support a blended BC form that serves both purposes. As Magley says - technology has progressed beyond the point that the BC form can handle in a lot fo cases. Any change in parental responsibilities AFTER the BC is issued would fall under adoption.

[redkow97]

This whole thing is bad news for the gay community.

For decades, there has been a sort of silent agreement amongst gay rights activists to explicitly avoid arguing gay marriage up to the supreme court until there is a clear liberal majority seated.

This decision could go either way, and what are gay folks going to do if it's not in their favor? It would have been smarter to wait this out, or continue to push for Federal legislation to clarify the issue...

I'm all for equal rights for the gay community, but this isn't the smartest way to go about achieving that goal.

(and in response to Jinu's post about a cottage 'gay divorce' industry, there is already a niche market for estate attorneys who specialize in protecting the rights of homosexual partners to insure that families don't eff over devoted partners who the deceased would have wanted to provide for)

[jbot]

damn you crafty esquires. i was going to make gayzillions

[redkow97]

damn you crafty esquires. i was going to make gayzillions

You still can.

I work with a lesbian who has gay clients lining up to utilize the estate planning services of "someone who understands where they're coming from."

I don't kjnow what being a lesbian has to do with her legal knowledge, but it's a tight-knit community. Apparently gay people refer each other to her.

[Scruit]

You still can.

I work with a lesbian who has gay clients lining up to utilize the estate planning services of "someone who understands where they're coming from."

I don't kjnow what being a lesbian has to do with her legal knowledge, but it's a tight-knit community. Apparently gay people refer each other to her.

Bikers go to lawyers who are bikers when the case involves bikes. You know they can empathize and are not going to be put off by the bike thing.