Custody for Same-Sex Couples

Almost 15 years ago, the California Court of Appeal became the first appellate court in the country to rule on a custody dispute between a lesbian couple. Although the petitioner in that case had jointly participated with her partner in the decision to bring a child into the world and had assumed all of the duties and responsibilities of a parent after the child's birth, the court held that she did not have standing even to seek visitation with her children — that she was a legal stranger to them. Curiale v. Reagan, 222 Cal.App.3d 1597, 1599 (Cal. Ct. App. 1990) (holding that a lesbian partner had no right to seek custody or visitation of a child born to her former partner, even though she had participated equally in parenting the child since birth); see also Nancy S. v. Michele G., 228 Cal.App.3d 831 (Cal. Ct. App. 1991) (same); West v. Superior Court, 59 Cal.App.4th 302 (Cal. Ct. App. 1997) (same). As a result of these decisions, during the past 15 years, thousands of children in California have been completely and permanently cut off, both emotionally and financially, from one of their two parents.