Washblog

The Washington state Legislature is currently considering a bill (HB 1267) that would update the Uniform Parentage Act of 2002 by "clarifying and expanding the rights and obligations of state registered domestic partners and other couples related to parentage".  Here's a proposed addition to the Act:

Sec. 4.  (2) The provisions in this chapter apply to persons in a domestic partnership to the same extent they apply to persons in a marriage, and apply to persons of the same sex who have children together to the same extent they apply to persons of the opposite sex who have children together.

The bill would put gay and lesbian parents on the same legal footing as straight parents.  This sticks in the craw of the so-called Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW), a local affiliate of Focus on the Family and Family Research Council.  FPIW's latest e-mail tries to drum up opposition to the bill by warning:

HB 1267 would change rules regarding presumptions of parentage. Currently, if a married woman gives birth to a child, her husband is legally presumed to be the father of that child. HB 1267 would extend this presumption to same-sex relationships, so that a child could be legally presumed to have a second mother, for example, if the mother is in a domestic partnership with another woman.

Anti-child activist Joseph Backholm, E.D. of FPIW

FPIW was a major player in the 2009 effort to repeal Washington's domestic partnership law via Referendum 71.  That mean-spirited effort failed, and the Washington electorate became the first in the nation to ratify a same-sex relationship recognition law at the polls.

So blinded are they by their anti-gay animus that FPIW would rather put a child at risk than sanction legal recognition of the second parent when the parents are gay or lesbian.  Children with only one legal parent are half as secure as children with two legal parents.  FPIW is punishing children who happen to have gay or lesbian parents by advocating against the legal status of both parents as parents.

This anti-child, anti-family activism comes from an organization that claims that it "believes strong families are the foundation of a strong and healthy state" and is not only "fully committed to promoting public policy that encourages families to form, grow, and endure," but also "advocates for ...parental rights".