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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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 Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject: Canadian lesbian wants to be boy's third legal parent |
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Canadian lesbian wants to be boy's third legal parent
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Canadian lesbian wants to be boy's third legal parent
POSTED: 1650 GMT (0050 HKT), September 27, 2006
TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- A Canadian woman wants the Ontario Court of Appeal to recognize her as the third parent of a 5-year-old boy she's raising with her lesbian partner.
Final submissions in the case were heard Tuesday and a decision is expected within six months.
The application, if allowed, would be believed to mark the first time in Canada a child would legally have more than two parents, and would fundamentally change the definition of the word "family."
The biological father and mother and her female partner must remain anonymous because of a court ruling protecting their identities.
"The family has evolved over the years in a way that the law should recognize the reality of this little boy," said the father's lawyer, Alfred Mamo.
The original application made three years ago, requesting a declaration of parenthood, would give the mother's same-sex partner the same rights as if she were a biological parent.
It failed because the family court ruled that it did not have the authority to make the decision.
The applicant appealed, arguing she was in a special situation because same-sex couples require assisted human reproduction.
The case has raised the ire of several religious groups, including the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Catholic Civil Rights League, the Christian Legal Fellowship and Focus on the Family.
On behalf of these groups, the Alliance for Marriage and Family has filed a brief in the case, stating its belief that under family law in Canada, children can only have two parents.
To change the law, said Janet Epp Buckingham of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, "You would need to have the full hearings in the provincial parliament and it should be a legislated change."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
I thought at first that who other than religious nutty morons would not want people to have more legal guardians? How could it hurt?
I did think of one thing though. Will this kid be the guardian of three parents when they get older? That could be much more of a financial and emotional burden (especially if they get sick) that the kid never asked for. I just think before this is allowed (I don't really see why it can't be), they should have to figure out the other side of it too before jumping into it. |
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Samantha
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Location: Jinan-dong Hwaseong
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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The first thing that came to my mind about the quote of Canadian Family Law says a child can only have two parents, then how does the law account for step-parents, surrogates, and adoption.
My half-brothers technically have three mothers- 1) their birth mother, 2) my mother (who they still call mom) and 3) our stepmother. How would Canadian Family Law account for that? The same goes for Surrogate mothers, in the states the surrogate mother can claim rights to the child unless there is a clause in the contract that requires them to give up parental rights. Then there is adoption/foster care.
With all these different legal states of parenthood what does it matter if there is one more added to the list of possibilities? |
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-X-
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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am i the only one who thinks having 2 parents of the same sex will stunt a child's mental development, especially if the child in question is male and the people raising him are exclusively female? kids need both a male AND female influence during the developmental stages to ensure they become a balanced, well-rounded person when they are older.
if you choose to enter into a permanent homosexual relationship, be it actual marriage, common-law, etc. then you should be accepting the fact that you will never be raising children of your own. period. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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| -X- wrote: |
am i the only one who thinks having 2 parents of the same sex will stunt a child's mental development, especially if the child in question is male and the people raising him are exclusively female? kids need both a male AND female influence during the developmental stages to ensure they become a balanced, well-rounded person when they are older.
if you choose to enter into a permanent homosexual relationship, be it actual marriage, common-law, etc. then you should be accepting the fact that you will never be raising children of your own. period. |
dude, wake up, you are living in the "Me Me Me Me Me" era. Everything is about ME ME ME these days. Homosexuals dont think like you, for them this is primarily a selfish political issue. They dont love the kids they want to have legal posession of, for them its all about promoting gay rights, child's welfare be damned. Who really cares about some brat when you can push the gay agenda anyway? Its all political, all selfish. But with the MTV, ME ME ME generation, nothing but the self matters. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Hate to crap on it, but I'd guess this would have less to do with the action of love and the desire to care for the child and MORE to do with being able to claim a dependent ... |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| khyber wrote: |
| Hate to crap on it, but I'd guess this would have less to do with the action of love and the desire to care for the child and MORE to do with being able to claim a dependent ... |
And a sick political agenda. |
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-X-
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| jinju wrote: |
| -X- wrote: |
am i the only one who thinks having 2 parents of the same sex will stunt a child's mental development, especially if the child in question is male and the people raising him are exclusively female? kids need both a male AND female influence during the developmental stages to ensure they become a balanced, well-rounded person when they are older.
if you choose to enter into a permanent homosexual relationship, be it actual marriage, common-law, etc. then you should be accepting the fact that you will never be raising children of your own. period. |
dude, wake up, you are living in the "Me Me Me Me Me" era. Everything is about ME ME ME these days. Homosexuals dont think like you, for them this is primarily a selfish political issue. They dont love the kids they want to have legal posession of, for them its all about promoting gay rights, child's welfare be damned. Who really cares about some brat when you can push the gay agenda anyway? Its all political, all selfish. But with the MTV, ME ME ME generation, nothing but the self matters. |
touche 
although you shouldnt be so quick to lump all homosexuals into that category. my only brother is gay and he's the least likely person to draw attention to it. if you met him you'd never guess he was gay. he loves kids but knows that a gay relationship is far from an ideal environment for raising kids. its one of many sacrifices he's had to make by choosing to live his life that way. |
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riley
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: where creditors can find me
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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| One question, does the woman in the article want to be a legal guardian or one of the official parents? Is there a difference? It sounds like it to me from what the article says. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Don't lots of kids with step-parents already have three or four legal parents? |
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jinglejangle
Joined: 19 Feb 2005
Location: Far far far away.
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I can see having multiple gaurdians, but how much is too much? While I don't think this is probably the best thing for the boy, I worry more about what types of extremes could conceivably come about from a change in legislation.
What if a kid could have 23 parents? Would it be more likely to be a good thing or a bad thing?
Given the statistics for sexual abuse in US (don't know about Canada, but imagine it's similar) I would want as few adults as possible to have unrestricted access to my kid.
What do ya'll think? |
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Grimalkin
Joined: 22 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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| a gay relationship is far from an ideal environment for raising kids |
There are a lot of heterosexual relationships that are far from ideal environments from raising children and a lot of gay relationships provide environments that are better than those heterosexual relationships.
Simply because a person has the physical ability to produce children that doesn't necessarily make them a fit parent.
I also believe that the more people that a child has in its life to love and care for it the better.
Of course I also fully support support gay rights, however...
I think this is not an issue of gay rights but of the right of the child to have the best upbringing possible.
If the child has both an invoved and loving father and mother then no other parent is necessary. Not only that but a third parent involved in a relationship with the child's mother could cause an imbalance by supporting decisions made by the mother but not supported by the father (this would also be true if the third parent were male and in a heterosexual relationship with the mother).
I don't see the women involved in this case as selfish. They obviously care about the child enough to want what's in its best interest. It's up to the court to decide what that is.
I'd hate if the discussion generated by this court case turned into a gay rights versus gay bashing one instead of focusing on what is best for children in this kind of situation |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:21 pm Post subject: |
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yeah...for me, this has NOTHING to do with gayness or dykeness
I had a dyke friend in vancouver who was raising a wonder and wonderFULLY adjusted child.
If you have two open minded people who provide proper boundaries and are, in general, good parents, gender doesn't really matter that much. If it were that important, they could sign the kids up for big sister/brother whathaveyou... |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| -X- wrote: |
am i the only one who thinks having 2 parents of the same sex will stunt a child's mental development, especially if the child in question is male and the people raising him are exclusively female? kids need both a male AND female influence during the developmental stages to ensure they become a balanced, well-rounded person when they are older.
if you choose to enter into a permanent homosexual relationship, be it actual marriage, common-law, etc. then you should be accepting the fact that you will never be raising children of your own. period. |
Suppose a woman and a man get married. They have a couple of kids. The man takes off, or is arrested, or dies, and no longer sees the kids. Oh no! The kids no longer have a man raising them! This is certainly regretable. The woman has a number of choices:
a) she can give them up for adoption because according to your logic she must accept that she is now unfit (unless she's transgendered or hermaphroditic.)
b) she can introduce them to a series of boyfriends who float in and out of her life, providing valuable male role modelling but crushing rejection.
or
c) she can find some male role-models like her brother, father, friends, who can spend time with the children and build strong ties with them.
Of course, you'd choose option c), right? Well, why couldn't a lesbian couple do the same thing? |
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Dan The Chainsawman
Joined: 05 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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I worked with enough troubled kids to know that having a pair of lesbian parents would be so far down on the list of potential problems that dismissing a lesbian couple from being caretakers as a possible option is seriously disturbing.
The two people I know of who where raised by same sex couples both turned out to be understanding hetrosexuals. Next even if they didn't turn out as hetrosexuals who cares? I would rather a kid be taken care of, loved, and well cared for in a positive environment of a same sex household than the slew of less attractive alternatives. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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I wanna be adopted by lesbians.
Seriously though, if all parties consent and the child is not in danger, there should be no impediment to this. I have known plenty of people over the years raised by gay couples and they seem just as well adjusted as others I know who were raised in hetero families. -X-'s Rev. Lovejoy's wife-esque, 'won't somebody pleeease think of the children" merely underlies either a missunderstanding, dislike of gays or some statist intervention fetish. |
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