LGBTQIA+ people to Legislature: Pass MA Parentage Act; call

Despite rain and chilly weather, LGBTQ families, advocates, and allies kicked off Pride Month June 1 with the Rally for Massachusetts Families outside the State House, calling on the legislature to promptly pass the Massachusetts Parentage Act (MPA) (S. 1133 / H. 1714), a bipartisan bill to ensure important legal protections for all children, including those with LGBTQ+ parents. After a hearing last November, the bill is awaiting further action in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

Access a video recording (https://bit.ly/3xkha2o) of the rally.

With the July 31 end of the current legislative session quickly approaching, speakers at the event, which was hosted by the Massachusetts Parentage Act Coalition (https://bit.ly/3xj85Xm), illuminated the issues confronting families in Massachusetts due to the Commonwealth’s outdated parentage laws and how passage of the MPA would address such problems.

The speakers at the rally were:

• Kate Weldon LeBlanc, executive director Resolve New England

• State Rep. Kay Khan, lead sponsor of the MPA

• State Rep. Adam J. Scanlon, LGBTQ caucus and Judiciary Committee member

• J. Shia, a de facto parent

• Polly Crozier, GLAD senior staff attorney

Your Legislators

• Darmany Jimenez, youth activist and the teenage child of a de facto parent

• Jordan Budd, Executive Director, COLAGE

• Emily McGranachan, adult child of lesbian parents and director of corporate and foundation relations for Family Equality

• Owen James Nichols-Worley, the teenage son of gay dads and the first child born in MA to have both samesex parents listed on his birth certificate

Based on the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) 2017, a best-practice framework for ensuring the protection of the legal relationship between parents and children, the MPA would update state law to clarify who can be a parent and how to establish parentage. The MPA would add important protections for children born through assisted reproduction and surrogacy. The bill would also enable LGBTQ+ parents to establish parentage the same way other families do, including through a voluntary acknowledgement of parentage, and provide a clear standard for courts to resolve competing claims of parentage.

“We are here today to celebrate our families and also to celebrate the Mass. Parentage Act, which would update Massachusetts law that is definitely in need of updating. It has been over forty

Read the rest of this story at: TheRainbowTimesMass.com