Establishes confirmatory adoptions and allowing courts to grant the custody and support from more than two parents

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Erik Bottcher says this is needed

This bill makes adoption and parentage more accessible to LGBTQ fami- lies, especially those who conceive through assisted reproduction, and affords them the same rights and protections other parents enjoy. New York enacted the Child Parent Security Act (CPSA) in 2020 to make the state's family law to protect families that use assisted reproduction, including LGBTQ families. The law made many positive changes, including allowing same sex parents using assisted reproduction to sign a Volun- tary Acknowledgement of Parentage (VAP), clarifying the parentage of children conceived using assisted reproductive technology, and legaliz- ing compensated surrogacy. It was an incredible step forward, but there is still more to be done in New York to give LGBTQ and other nontradi- tional families the protections they need and deserve under the law. The first and second sections of this proposed legislation establish a streamlined confirmatory adoption process for parents who are already recognized as parents under New York law. Currently, when a child conceived through assisted reproduction is born to LGBTQ parents, both members of the couple are legal parents under the Child Parent Security Act. But many such families still need to complete an adoption to be sure their parental rights will be respected. A family who plans to travel abroad or pass foreign citizenship onto their child may need to adopt because many countries do not recognize judgments of parentage and discriminate against LGBTQ families. Completing such an adoption currently requires an expensive and intrusive process including a back- ground check and home inspection even though the parents are adopting their own child. This bill creates a streamlined confirmatory adoption process that will protect LGBTQ families facing a denial of their parental rights in other countries. Nineteen states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey, have already created a streamlined confirmatory adoption process to allow people who are already legal parents to obtain a judgment of adoption efficiently and affordably. Current New York law fails same-sex couples seeking to confirm their parentage through adoption because it forces them to go through the standard adoption process that requires a home investigation and criminal background check. The home inspection, background check, and hearing process is extremely expensive, intrusive, and time consuming, making it inaccessible to many parents. This bill establishes a consistent streamlined confirmatory adoption process where people who already have legal parentage over their children can confirm that relationship through adoption without a home inspection, criminal background check, or a court hearing, which will make the process affordable and more accessible to LGBTQ families. The third section of this bill will recognize functional parents who have cared for and raised a child, either from birth or for a signif- icant portion of the child's life, but have not been legally recognized as parents. 582-101, the "holding out" provision recognizes a parent who has lived with a child since their birth or adoption, functioned as the child's parent and presented themselves to the world as the child's parent. The bill also creates a court adjudication process to recognize de facto parents, who are people that are not biological or legal parents of the child but function as parents of a child, raising and loving the child as their own, as legal parents of the child. It will create a clear, accessible path to legal parentage for LGBTQ parents who have been functioning as parents of their child without legal rights or protection. This parentage process will be a vital step forward in protecting the parent-child relationship for LGBTQ family situations that aren't covered under the existing parentage provisions. The bill also makes clear that people who have been adjudicated to be a parent under de facto parentage and holding out will have

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.