Gay Ctody Fights Refe Legal Parenthood - WSJ

Contents:

• THE CTODY CCIBLE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AUTHORY ABOUT GAY AND LBIAN PARENTS
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL
• GAY CTODY FIGHTS REFE LEGAL PARENTHOOD
• ‘OUR SON’ REVIEW: LE EVANS AND BILLY PORTER TURN A GAY DIVORCE AND CTODY BATTLE INTO SAME OLD SAME OLD

THE CTODY CCIBLE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AUTHORY ABOUT GAY AND LBIAN PARENTS

As LGBTQ parents stggled to mata ctody of children after g out, they employed experts whose arguments were signed to assuage hostile judg, but which unwtgly created a standard that today puts parents like Geulas at risk of losg ctody of their the midst of the gay liberatn and lbian femist movements, many married men and women me out as gay or lbian. Faced wh the arguments, untls gay and lbian parents lost ctody and visatn ti began to turn when gay and lbian parents lled on psychiatric experts to ttify their fense, cludg Richard Green, one of a group of psychiatrists who fought to remove homosexualy om the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s list of mental illns 1973.

Instead, even as they fend the fns of LGBTQ parents, the experts ntued to ame homosexualy and genr nonnformy as negative tras that “good” parents would help their children dog so, they created a legal rerd, and psychologil study evince that today n be wield as a weapon agast parents who support their children’s transgenr or genr-nonnformg inti. The discrimatn they are facg fay urt today for supportg their children’s genr is a product of ntemporary opposn to transgenr visibily, but is also a legacy of gay and lbian ctody s that ma children’s genr and sexual normativy a basis for ctody termatns.

’” In his opn, which imposed strict limatns on visatn, the judge foced on the opposn wh the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) over the cisn to classify homosexualy as a mental illns, reasong that psychiatrists' abily to agree on how to fe or classify homosexualy dited that was impossible to know what effect Voeller's homosexualy would have on his children.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

Footnote 2 Voeller's trial illtrat the extent to which scientific thory ncerng homosexualy beme central to gay father and lbian mother ctody s, which were ligated creasg numbers after the APA's 1973 cisn to classify homosexualy as a mental illns. Footnote 10 As this article monstrat, the APA cisn to classify homosexualy as a mental illns did not sever the relatnship between scientific thory and gay rights adjuditn, which had leter nsequenc for gay men and women for much of the twentieth century. The major psychologil explanatns for homosexualy the 1970s and 1980s emphasized the importance of early age genr role velopment termg sexual orientatn; whout evince to the ntrary, most mental health profsnals assumed that parental homosexualy would prevent children om learng the appropriate genr rol that would lead to a heterosexual orientatn.

GAY CTODY FIGHTS REFE LEGAL PARENTHOOD

Although the work of the scientists, which strsed that the children of lbian mothers and gay fathers would bee heterosexual, provid valuable evince for gay and lbian ligants, the studi also perpetuated the notn that homosexualy was an unsirable oute, creatg a double-edged sword for ligants. Footnote 17 Bee nservative rearch was rpondg to the succs of s liberal unterpart, anti-gay and lbian parentg studi did not velop until the late 1980s, although this was still several years before the nservative legal movement began addrsg sexual orientatn.

‘OUR SON’ REVIEW: LE EVANS AND BILLY PORTER TURN A GAY DIVORCE AND CTODY BATTLE INTO SAME OLD SAME OLD

While the 1970s are known for the rurgence of the nservative right, and proment advot like Ana Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly employed the specter of gay fai to argue agast liberal legal reforms, nservative law groups did not bee volved battl over gay and lbian fai until much later.