Thursday, December 19, 2002

A story released today by the Associated Press reports that a Pennsylvania state superior court panel has ruled that the former lesbian partner of a woman who bore five children during their relationship must pay child support.

The couple, identified only by initials in the three-judge panel's opinion, lived together in Carlisle from the mid-1980s until 1997 and agreed to have children together through artificial insemination.

The partner, identified as H.A.N., stayed at home and cared for the children while the mother returned to work in a civilian job for the Navy. H.A.N. did not legally adopt the children.

After the couple split up, H.A.N. successfully sought custody of the children during summers and school breaks but argued that she should not have to pay child support.

A Cumberland County Common Pleas judge ordered her to pay back and current child support, and the Superior Court upheld the order Tuesday after she appealed.

The case marked the third time in less than a year that the Pennsylvania appellate courts ruled unanimously in cases involving gay and lesbian parents.

One case granted standing to nonbiological mothers. In another, the state Supreme Court ruled that unmarried couples, including those in a same-sex relationship, can legally adopt children.

Second-parent adoptions also have been approved by courts in the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Vermont. Three states -- California, Connecticut and Vermont -- have laws permitting second-parent adoptions.