Two prominent and popular lawmakers from the state of Tennessee are currently trying want to get rid of a 40-year-old state law granting legitimacy to children conceived through artificial insemination. Supporters say the bill timely and will address the abuses of gay couples on their children.
The bill would remove a single sentence applying to child custody when artificial insemination is involved, one that's been interpreted to make no distinction between same-sex and heterosexual couples.
as expected, uneducated and uninformed opponents warn that changing the law could prevent both same-sex parents from appearing on the children's birth certificates, affecting their ability to make parenting decisions ranging from medical care to education.
"It would affect lesbian couples in particular, because if you have two women who are married and one is the birth mother, the other one is presumed to be parent in Tennessee," said Chris Sanders, the executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project.
Ever since the 2015 same-sex marriage ruling, Tennessee laws with gender-specific terms have been interpreted as applying to either gender of married couples. But that would change under another Republican bill that is seeking to eliminate gender-neutral interpretations of "mother," ''father," ''husband," and "wife."
State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, the sponsor of the artificial insemination bill, in a Facebook post denied that her bill is aimed at same-sex marriage, and argued it would not de-legitimize children because another state law addresses parentage without asking about the method of conception.
"The remaining law that will now govern the situation does not have the government inquiring into the means by which the couple's child came into existence or whose sperm, the husband's or a donor's, was used," Weaver wrote in the post.
Weaver said there would be no change under her legislation for heterosexual couples. "A child born to a married woman will be considered the child of her husband," she said in a statement.
Weaver said she is proposing to repeal the law because of constitutional concerns raised by the Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery in a divorce case between two women in Knoxville.
In fact, Slatery's filing in that case defends the constitutionality of the current law, arguing that following the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same sex marriage, the Tennessee statute should not be read as applying to "the legitimate child of the two spouses."
The bill would remove a single sentence applying to child custody when artificial insemination is involved, one that's been interpreted to make no distinction between same-sex and heterosexual couples.
as expected, uneducated and uninformed opponents warn that changing the law could prevent both same-sex parents from appearing on the children's birth certificates, affecting their ability to make parenting decisions ranging from medical care to education.
"It would affect lesbian couples in particular, because if you have two women who are married and one is the birth mother, the other one is presumed to be parent in Tennessee," said Chris Sanders, the executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project.
Ever since the 2015 same-sex marriage ruling, Tennessee laws with gender-specific terms have been interpreted as applying to either gender of married couples. But that would change under another Republican bill that is seeking to eliminate gender-neutral interpretations of "mother," ''father," ''husband," and "wife."
State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, the sponsor of the artificial insemination bill, in a Facebook post denied that her bill is aimed at same-sex marriage, and argued it would not de-legitimize children because another state law addresses parentage without asking about the method of conception.
"The remaining law that will now govern the situation does not have the government inquiring into the means by which the couple's child came into existence or whose sperm, the husband's or a donor's, was used," Weaver wrote in the post.
Weaver said there would be no change under her legislation for heterosexual couples. "A child born to a married woman will be considered the child of her husband," she said in a statement.
Weaver said she is proposing to repeal the law because of constitutional concerns raised by the Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery in a divorce case between two women in Knoxville.
In fact, Slatery's filing in that case defends the constitutionality of the current law, arguing that following the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same sex marriage, the Tennessee statute should not be read as applying to "the legitimate child of the two spouses."