Daddy Rulz & Domino - McD.
Daddy Rulz & Domino:
I did not know the details of the McDonald’s case. All I knew was that a woman spilled coffee in her lap (Hell, I do that all the time)
I looked at the posted McD. link, & now my opinion has changed regarding that case. Thank you guys for enlightening me.
See Domino, I can admit when I’m wrong & change my opinion.
ILAS
American Women Suck – I have not changed my opinion on that.
Jackson thank you wise and faithful leader
I owe you 1/4 of a BBBJ from the provider of your choice. I just discovered the freaking ignore list. It's so cool! Now whenever the pizza guy posts it say "this post hidden" I love it! Is there also a hidden spell check I don't know about?
So now we can get back to the serious business of telling the world why AW suck, instead of responding to the horseshit of a 16 year old hunched over his keyboard hoping his Mom doesn't walk in and see "*************" at the top of the page. Break out the Brahmas!
I guess lesbian AW are just as screwed up as hetero AW
Here's the link:
[url]http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/11715725.htm[/url]
Posted on Mon, May. 23, 2005
State high court set to weigh gay parents' post-split rights
By Howard Mintz
KNIGHT RIDDER
It would seem to be the most ordinary of family court conflicts -- two people in love who decide to have a child, split and then find themselves at war over parental power.
But mix into that equation the difficulty of applying long-standing family laws to same-sex relationships and artificial reproductive technologies, and the result is California's latest legal standoff over gay rights.
With the parental rights of thousands of same-sex couples at stake, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider three custody and child support cases involving lesbian partners who agreed to bear children through sperm and egg donors and then later broke up. The cases give the justices another opportunity to shed light on how they will deal with the civil rights of gay couples as a legal challenge over a state ban on same-sex marriage bears down on the court's docket.
Even with the state's new domestic partnership law establishing firmer rights for gay couples and recent court rulings allowing second-parent adoptions, the Supreme Court's ruling is expected to be crucial for many same-sex couples with children.
"You are going to have people that don't register as domestic partners, just as you have people who don't get married," said San Francisco lawyer Jill Hersh, who represents a Marin County woman seeking to gain parental rights in a case against her former partner. "That's as old as the ages."
The three cases present very different factual scenarios that force the Supreme Court to balance the rights of biological mothers against partners who can stake a claim to parent status because of their bond with the children.
Medical advances further muddy the waters on the traditional definition of parent. For instance, two women can become mothers of a child by one partner donating eggs to the other. By using a surrogate mother and artificial insemination, two men can become parents together.
The appeals courts have been divided on how to proceed, but the Los Angeles-based Second District issued an unprecedented ruling last year finding that a nonbirth mother in a same-sex relationship could have equal parenting rights.
In that case, Lisa Ann is arguing she should have parenting rights equal to those of Kristine Renee, who bore a child through artificial insemination during their 10-year relationship. In the Marin County case, K.M., who donated her eggs to her lesbian partner, E.G., argues that she should be legally recognized as a parent, despite signing a routine form that relinquished her parenting rights when she provided the eggs. The couple raised twin girls together for more than five years before splitting in 2002.
The third case pits Emily B., an El Dorado County woman who bore twins through artificial insemination, against her former partner, Elisa Maria B., who left her partner when the children were 2 years old. Emily, who is backed in the case by Attorney General Bill Lockyer, is seeking child support payments from Elisa, who she argues was committed to raising a family before leaving and is now the equivalent of a deadbeat dad.
"Deadbeat parents are not exclusive to heterosexuals," Emily said in an interview last week.
Since the split with Elisa, Emily has been unable to spend time with Elisa's son, whom she helped parent during their relationship. Emily said she sides with the nonbiological parents in the other two cases who are seeking equal parenting rights.
"Both of them are parents," she said. "They held themselves out to be a family unit. I know what it's like to lose a child."
Elisa's lawyers could not be reached for comment. But in court papers, they argue that there is no basis in current law to force a nonbiological partner in a same-sex relationship to support a child if he or she hadn't adopted the child.
As with the child support issue, the Supreme Court must take laws that have been crafted for heterosexual couples and figure out how they apply to same-sex relationships and the evolving world of sperm and egg donors. For example, under current law, a man is the presumed father if he "receives the child into his home and openly holds the child out as his natural child."
The justices will rule on whether that provision applies to a birth mother's lesbian partner.
In the Los Angeles case, Kristine argues that she has as much right to terminate her partner's role in raising her child as a mother who breaks up with a long-term boyfriend who was not the biological father of her child. Liberty Counsel, a conservative religious organization, has sided with the arguments of biological mothers like Kristine, urging the Supreme Court to reject the arguments of same-sex partners who don't adopt.
But in court papers, lawyers for Lisa Ann say Kristine's position deprives their child, Lauren, of a true parent because Lisa Ann had been identified as a co-parent on everything from birth announcements to financial matters. "This is Lauren's case," Lisa Ann urged the court. "Lauren has two mothers."
K.M., the Marin County woman who donated her eggs to her former partner, E.G., shares the same view as Lisa Ann, although K.M. stakes an additional claim that she has a biological link to their twin daughters. E.G. was infertile, so K.M. donated the eggs and the twins were conceived through artificial insemination.
In a 2003 interview, K.M. told the San Jose Mercury News: "We always knew we would be parenting together. Never, ever, ever would I have dreamed that something like this was possible."
But E.G. argues that it was clear that she would be the sole parent of any child born from the donated eggs. Diana Richmond, E.G.'s attorney, said the subsequent relationship between the women doesn't outweigh the birth mother's right to control custody of her children.
"I think all three cases present parallel issues that give the court a good opportunity to make a consistent standard," Richmond said. "It's going to be a much clearer and familiar atmosphere for same-sex parents to establish parentage, however the court decides these issues."
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I think it was easier when the stork delivered babies.
-ILAS