1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910972163703321

Autore

Ball M Carlos A

Titolo

The right to be parents : LGBT families and the transformation of parenthood / / Carlos A. Ball

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : New York University Press, 2012

ISBN

9780814739327

0814739326

9780814739310

0814739318

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (248 p.)

Classificazione

LAW038010SOC012000

Disciplina

346.7301/73

Soggetti

Parent and child - United States

Gay parents - Legal status, laws, etc - United States

Custody of children - United States

LGBTQ+ parents

LGBTQ+ personal and family law

LGBTQ+ families

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Mothers on trial -- Fathers come out of the closet -- Breaking up is hard to do -- Donate here, parent there -- When the state discriminates -- Gender does not make a parent.

Sommario/riassunto

In 1975, California courts stripped a lesbian mother of her custody rights because she was living openly with another woman. Twenty years later, the Virginia Supreme Court did the same thing to another lesbian mother. In ordering that children be separated from their mothers, these courts ruled that it was not possible for a woman to be both a good parent and a lesbian.The Right to be Parents is the first book to provide a detailed history of how LGBT parents have turned to the courts to protect and defend their relationships with their children. Carlos A. Ball chronicles the stories of LGBT parents who, in seeking to gain legal recognition of and protection for their relationships with their children, have fundamentally changed how American law defines



and regulates parenthood. Each chapter contains riveting human stories of determination and perseverance as LGBT parents challenge the widely-held view that having a same-sexual orientation, or that being a transsexual, renders individuals incapable of being good parents.To this day, some courts are still not able to look beyond sexual orientation and gender identity in order to fairly apply legal principles in cases involving LGBT parents and their children. Yet on the whole, stories are of progress and transformation: as a result of these pioneering LGBT parent litigants, the law is increasingly recognizing the wide diversity in American familial structures. The Right to be Parents explores why and how that has come to be.