Three’s a family? Lesbian couple fight groundbreaking case
Judges in Canada are deliberating the outcome of a case which could redefine the term “Family”.
A lesbian couple are fighting for both of them to be recognised as the legal parents of their five-year-old son, along with his biological father. The couple first made an application to the family courts three years ago, but the court ruled that it did not have the authority to make that judgement. The case now rests with the Court of Appeal where Chief Justice Roy McMurty, Mr Justice Marc Rosenberg and Mr Justice Jean-Marc Labrosse are expected to make their decision within six months.
The lawyer for the father, Alfred Mamo, said that “the family has evolved over the years.” He explained that the child has “two mothers and a father with whom he thrives. They all want this for their son.”
The lawyer for the couple, Peter Jervis noted; “it’s discriminatory, because one of them gets legally recognized — the biological mother — but the non-biological mother, who is equally part of the process except for the biological bits, can’t be legally recognized even though they both decided to have a child, planned for the child, arranged for the procreation and the birth, and they both jointly parent the child.”
The couple, who have been together since 1992, make sure that their son sees his father twice a week. “The reality for him is that he has three parents. That’s an everyday experience for him and that’s our responsibility as parents to make that solid beyond his everyday experience, to make it solid in the social and legal world,” said the mother’s partner.
