VAFT News - "Attitudes of family court counsellors towards same-sex parents" by E Tauber

This article reports on research which examined how Family Court Counsellors represented gay and lesbian parenting in a sample of 14 contemporary Family Court reports. It looked at how same sex parenting was addressed as well as the extent to which reports reflected research that points in the direction of there being no difference in outcomes for children raised by heterosexual parents and parents in same sex relationships. Current research available on attitudes of social science practitioners and the Family Court's ambivalent responses to issues of parenting by gay and lesbian individuals were explored.

[Source: VAFT News (Victorian Association of Family Therapists) v.25 no.1 Feb 2003: 5-6,8]

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Hobart Mercury - "Gay blast for Hodgman"

LIBERAL justice spokesman Michael Hodgman should apologise to gayparents , Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman Rodney Croome said.

Mr Hodgman yesterday urged the release of legislation which would allow same-sex couples to legally adopt children.

``The Bacon Labor Government has gagged its own members from speaking freely on this unmandated aspect of its radical social engineering reform agenda,'' Mr Hodgman said.

``Making the draft legislation public well in advance would allow the community to have its say and aid in the identification and correction in the legislation that might not be in the interests of Tasmanian children.''

Mr Croome said the Denison MHA's comments denigrated Tasmanian gay and lesbian parents.

``There is nothing new or radical about lesbian and gay people raising children,'' Mr Croome said.

He said adoption would provide foster children and step-children with greater emotional, financial and legal security.

``Mr Hodgman owes an apology to all those lesbian and gay parents helping to raise the next generation of Tasmania,'' Mr Croome said.

The law is expected to most commonly apply to gay couples raising children from previous heterosexual partnerships, giving them the same legal rights available to married parents.

``There are many cases of single parents doing an excellent job but when it comes to adoption, the basic principle of having a mother and father is what the community tells us they want,'' Mr Hodgman said.

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The Age - "Family Court should rule on gay disputes: Kirby" by Fergus Shiel

High Court judge Michael Kirby has declared his support for the Family Court to deal with property disputes between gay couples.

He told an international family law conference in Melbourne yesterday that, in the unlikely event that he were to break up with his male partner of 33 years, he would hope to be treated equally before the law.

"But if it were to happen, it would seem more seemly to me, it would seem more equal to other citizens, that it should be dealt with in a Family Court with other people whose relationships have broken down rather than in an equity court," he said.

The Chief Justice of the Family Court, Alastair Nicholson, later said it would be "a very sensible idea" for the Family Court to have jurisdiction over both gay and heterosexual couples.

Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams has clashed with his Victorian counterpart, Rob Hulls, because the Commonwealth wants to extend family court powers over property settlements from married couples to separating de factos. But the extension would exclude gay couples.

Justice Kirby said it was time we all faced up to the reality that there were many sexual minorities demanding equality under family law.

At present, separating married couples have custody and property issues determined in the Family Court.

But when de facto couples separate, the Family Court deals with custody matters and property settlements are decided in state Supreme Courts, with the exception of Western Australia, which has its own Family Court that deals with same sex breakdowns.

The Federal Government wants to take over state and territory powers for property settlements for heterosexual de facto couples in order to save themtime and legal expense.

Mr Hulls says Victoria is willing to transfer powers to the Commonwealth but the move should cover all de facto couples, regardless of sexuality, otherwise it would be homophobic.

In his address yesterday to the 16th World Congress of the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates, Justice Kirby said the community needed to consider questions of sexuality before the law.

"It is important, I think, that people like me should tell people like you these things so that you realise that the issue of sexuality is not something odd and peculiar of tiny minorities," he said.

"It is something that reaches in the highest constitutional offices of countries. It always has, but in the past it has been subject to the pressure 'Don't ask. Don't tell.'

"Thanks in part to genetic information . . . and in part to the work of Alfred Kinsey and others like him, that edict is in its last days - at least in Western countries - and it is important that all of us should face up to these scientific realities."

Mr Williams responded: "The government believes that regulating the property settlements of same sex couples is properly the province of the state and territories."

[Link: Original Article"

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Sydney Morning Herald - "Same-sex couples enlisted to solve foster-parent crisis" by Erin O'Dwyer

Gay and lesbian couples are being urged to foster disadvantaged children in a bid to address the dire shortage of foster families across the state.

Welfare agencies have approved dozens of gay men and lesbians as foster carers, in stark contrast to state laws that prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children.

NSW Foster Care Association president Mary Jane Beach said same-sex couples were able to provide emotionally stable and financially secure home environments, at a time when fewer traditional families were willing to take on foster children.

"We see lots of gay and lesbian carers who are absolutely outstanding," she said.

The foster carer shortage is so critical that last month the Department of Community Services (DOCS) launched its largest recruitment campaign, targeting single women and people in their 20s. Fortnightly foster-care allowances were also increased by $21 to $721.

Each day in NSW, six children are placed in emergency care and more than 10,000 young people across the state are unable to live at home. Yet there are only 4000 registered foster carers.
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DOCS and other welfare agencies are yet to begin actively recruiting same-sex couples and there are no figures available to show how many gay men and lesbians are approved carers. But gay lobby groups say the community is an untapped market and are calling on welfare agencies to promote more gay fostering.

Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby convener David Scamell said foster parenting was a viable option for same-sex couples who wanted to have children but could not because government policy explicitly banned same-sex couples from adopting children, and access to IVF was not universally available to lesbians.

The Foster Care Association has backed the call. Ms Beach said more than a dozen same-sex foster parents were members of the association, including one lesbian couple who had fostered for more than 20 years.

"It doesn't matter what gender they are," Ms Beach said. "It's the level of care they are able to provide and their ability to meet the needs of the children, whether they are single, gay or lesbian, or married."

Publisher Silke Bader and her partner of seven years, banker Tanya Sale, received two foster children just nine months after they first registered with DOCS and welfare agency Barnardo's.

Ms Bader, who publishes national lesbian magazine LOTL, said the couple became foster parents because they could not adopt and did not want to use donor sperm.

Their children - a brother and sister aged four and six - enjoy a stable home environment. They have lived together as a family in Coogee for two years, while the children's six siblings have been moved three times.

Ms Bader said she and her partner also had a very good relationship with the children's natural parents.

A DOCS spokeswoman said anyone who expressed an interest in fostering would be considered, regardless of their sexuality. "The paramount consideration is always the best interests of the child," she said.

[Link: Original Article]

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A Community Law Reform Document - "And then... the brides changed nappies" by Jenni Millbank

Lesbian mothers, gay fathers and the legal recognition of our relationships with the children we raise

A Community Law Reform Document - 1st edition
Nappies is for consultation

In 1993 the GLRL developed relationship recognition options in The Bride Wore Pink. After a process of community consultation, a second edition of the Bride was developed in 1994. Bride became the basis for lobbying for law reform over 5 years until laws recognising gay and lesbian relationships were passed in NSW in 1999. This second stage, Nappies is to take the law reform process further, from partnerships to parenting.

This discussion paper outlines some of the issues in the laws that regulate and (mostly do not) recognise our families. We suggest a series of possibilities for change and recommend those we think are the best.

We are informed in this paper by existing social science research on gay and lesbian family forms as well as by the GLRL 2001 consultation on parenting issues. Our starting point is that parenting issues are more of an issue generally for women than men, as lesbians are more likely to be parents than gay men are, and more likely to be the full time caregivers to children when they are parents. Acknowledging women’s primacy in parenting issues does not mean we devalue men’s parenting relationships.

Our purpose is to find models that assist all our families as they exist now, it is not to express any preference for one kind of family – one parent or two, gay dads involved or not involved - over any other.

We expect that our suggestions will generate a range of views. This document is only a draft, it is not final. We need to hear from you about whether you think what we propose is helpful. You can respond in writing, by email, or at one of the community consultations through 2002/3 – see the details for submissions and consultations at the end of this paper.

We hope to develop a broad consensus from listening to lesbian and gay families about what law reform is needed. If there is a consensus we will write a final report and use it as a base for our future lobbying efforts, as we did with Bride. If there is no real agreement within our communities, we will issue a final report acknowledging where those divisions lie.

[Link: Full Report]

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The Age - "Battle for boy ends in double tragedy" by Julie Szego

The lesbian mother at the centre of a bitter Family Court battle with a gay sperm donor was found dead in her Melbourne home on Thursday, along with her two-year old son, in an apparent murder-suicide.

The mother, 40, lived with her lesbian co-parent, who had fought alongside her earlier this year to restrict the father's contact with the child.

In April the donor father won the right to have regular contact visits with his son after a Family Court judge ruled that it was in the child's best interests.

Since the trial, the co-parent had played the role of intermediary in facilitating the visits. It is believed those contact arrangements had been progressing smoothly and the father was enjoying a healthy relationship with the toddler.

It is also believed the birth mother had received psychiatric treatment since the court case.

A police spokeswoman said last night the mother and child's names could not be released but confirmed the matter was being treated as a murder-suicide.

Detectives are preparing a report for the coroner on the incident and an autopsy is expected later.

The birth mother and co-parent had brought proceedings to restrict contact between the sperm donor father and the child to twice a year. The father sought regular contact.

The couple and the father gave conflicting evidence on understandings they had reached before the child's birth. Initially, the child's birth was concealed from the father. The biological mother insisted that she, her lesbian partner and son were a complete family unit.

At one stage, she said her son emitted a strong male odour after contact with his father.

Justice Paul Guest ordered fortnightly four-hour visits between father and child, with the length of the visits increasing incrementally to include overnight stays, alternate weekends and half of school holidays by September, 2004.

[Link: Original Article]

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The Age - "Online ads prompt surrogacy ban call" by Richard Baker

A child welfare activist yesterday called for a national ban on surrogacy after revelations that six Australians were advertising for surrogate mothers on an American website.

The site, www.surromomsonline.com, also contains two classified ads placed by Australian women offering to be egg donors.

Those seeking surrogate mothers include a 42-year-old gay man, a father who sees his two children only twice a fortnight, and an infertile Melbourne couple.

Each state has different laws on surrogacy. Only the Australian Capital Territory allows non-commercial surrogacy.

Retired law lecturer and child welfare activist Neville Turner said a nationwide ban on surrogacy was needed to protect children. "These people are desperate, perhaps, so it's up to the law to prevent desperate people from producing children who are going to be emotionally disturbed and bewildered," he said.

Mr Turner said advertising for a surrogate mother was illegal in Victoria under the state's Infertility Treatment Act.

Premier Steve Bracks said yesterday that a Werribee woman who had advertised herself as an egg donor on the American website was breaking Victorian law and might face prosecution. He called on the woman, who has already helped a Melbourne couple reach the early stages of pregnancy, to formally register her services as a donor at an IVF clinic.

Mr Bracks said the case highlighted the need for national laws for the Internet in Australia.

The gay man seeking a surrogate mother said he had placed his ad on the US website last week and had received eight responses, including one from an 18-year-old.

He said his dream of fatherhood included the long-term involvement of the surrogate mother. "I want my child to know why they came into the world the way they did, and who their surrogate mother is," he said.

The first legal Australian surrogacy resulted in the birth of a baby girl in Canberra in 1996.

- with AAP

[Link: Original Article]

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