The real MODERN FAMILY? Unprecedented California bill would allow a child to have more than two parents



From the dawn of time, the natural order of things has been that a child has two parents: a mother and a father, but a new bill that is currently before the California state Assembly might change all that.

State Senator Mark Leno has proposed legislation to allow a child to have multiple parents.

‘The bill brings California into the 21st century, recognizing that there are more than Ozzie and Harriet families today,’ the San Francisco Democrat told the Sacramento Bee , referring to the TV parents from the classic 1950s TV show the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.



Family 2.0: The proposed bill would affect a family in which a same-sex couple asked a male friend to help them conceive, and then decided that all three would raise the child

Surrogate births, same-sex marriages and In Vitro fertilization have given rise to a growing number of non-traditional households that have room for more than just Mom and Dad. However, not everyone is on board with making it official.

Benjamin Lopez, legislative analyst for the Traditional Values Coalition, decried Leno's bill as a new attempt to ‘revamp, redefine and muddy the waters’ of family structure in the drive to legalize gay marriage in a state that has already rejected it once before.

‘It comes as no surprise that he would try to say that a child has more than two parents – that's absurd,’ said Lopez, whose group espouses tBiblical family values.

Modern man: State Senator Mark Leno, who introduced the bill, said it would bring California into the 21st century

Under Leno's bill, SB 1476, if three or more people who acted as parents to a child could not agree on custody, visitation and child support in case of a divorce, a judge could split those things up among them.

The bill is not meant to expand the definition of who can qualify as a parent, but rather to eliminate the limit of two per child.

Under current law, a parent can be a man who signs a voluntary declaration of paternity, for example. It also can be a man who was married and living with a child's mother, or who took a baby into his home and represented the infant as his own.

Leno's bill, which has passed the state Senate and is now in the Assembly, would apply equally to men or women, and to straight or same-sex couples alike

The legislation would be applicable in several different scenarios, among them a family in which a man began dating a woman while she was pregnant, then raised that child with her for seven years. The youth also had a parental relationship with the biological father.

Another example would be a same-sex couple that asked a close male friend to help them conceive, and then decided that all three would raise the child.

Fictional family: The sponsor of the bill, Senator Mark Leno, said that nowadays, no all families are like the one in the classic 1950s TV show the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

SB 1476 stemmed from an appellate court case last year involving a child's biological mother, her same-sex partner, and a man who had an affair with the biological mother and got her pregnant while she was separated temporarily from her female lover.

Supporters of the bill say that recognizing more than two people as parents would make it more likely that a child has financial support, health insurance or Social Security benefits.

In bitter custody battles involving two unfit parents, a judge might have greater flexibility to keep a child out of foster care by recognizing the existence of a third of fourth parent, Leno contends.

Opponents, however, argue that green-lighting multiple parenthood in one part of law inevitably raises questions that could result in lawsuits in other legal sectors.

Backlash: Critics of the legislation say it makes a mockery of the traditional family unit and could result in lawsuits

Tax deductions, citizenship, probate, public assistance, school notifications and Social Security rights all can be affected by determinations of parenthood, notes the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists.

‘This bill, in our opinion, if passed, will cause significant unintended consequences,’ said Diane Wasznicky, the group's president and a family law attorney in Sacramento.

Karen Anderson, of the California Protective Parents Association, said the legislation could result in a child being bounced among multiple households in case of a split.

‘It's hard enough for children to be split up two ways, much less multiple ways,’ she told the Sacramento Bee..

SB 1476 states that concerns about child stability ‘may mean that not all parents share legal or physical custody.’

Greater flexibility: Supporters say the bill would allow a judge to keep a child out of foster care in case of a custody battle by recognizing another parent

But Wasznicky says that it makes no sense to declare someone a parent, essential to a child's well-being, but then remove that person from the kid’s life.