Children in California will be able to legally have three parents under a new law that critics have branded a “Trojan horse for the same-sex marriage agenda.”
The new legislation is designed to cover situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent.
The bill was partly prompted by a complicated custody battle in 2011 involving a child of lesbian parents who was placed in foster care after one parent ended up in jail and the other in the hospital.
The child’s biological father was initially granted parental responsibilities by a court, but the decision was later reversed after an appeals court concluded a child could not have more than two parents.
“Once we started trying to normalize parenting by same-sex couples and redefine marriage to remove the dual gender requirement, we had to end up with triple parenting,” says Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the Ruth Institute, which seeks to promote traditional marriage.
The legislation, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, will come into effect at the beginning of next year, making California the fifth state in America to pass such a law.
The bill was sponsored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and by the Children’s Advocacy Institute at San Diego School of Law.
Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, says, “This is, in the long run, going to be a mistake.”
He adds, “The ones who are going to pay the price are not the activists, but it’s going to be children, who will see greater conflict and indecision over matters involving their well-being.”
Dacus says having more than two legal parents will create the potential for greater conflict over what is best for a child and will result in more complicated court fights.
In 2010, a lesbian mother in the U.K. lost a bitter custody battle with the homosexual man who fathered her two children through artificial insemination.
Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, previously warned, “It’s always a recipe for disaster to try and create children to order by artificial means to satisfy the desires of natural parents who are unrelated and lack a shared commitment to parenting.”
