At every adoption hearing in Travis County, a child chooses from an assortment of stuffed animals in the courtroom to commemorate their adoption day. One of the best parts of these hearings is seeing the child’s (or parents of babies) faces light up as they pick out the perfect stuffed animal to celebrate one of...Read More

Greetings and Best Wishes for 2019. In the thirty years that I have been practicing LGBT family law, I have seen so many changes, mostly positive. Last year was full of progress – and challenges. Here are a few highlights. CHALLENGES Today, the biggest legal, and cultural, threat to our families is the balancing of...Read More

Dear Friends and Clients, Immediately after Trump became President, I had many inquiries about the future of LGBTQ rights. Now that a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is inevitable, I am again being asked what it all means – and what we can do to protect ourselves. Nobody has a crystal ball to...Read More

The backlash is real!  Read this article about a GLAAD survey and do everything you can to protect your relationship and your family. “Compared to last year’s survey, significantly more respondents said they would be uncomfortable with a family member, a child’s teacher, or their doctor who was LGBTQ.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/02/05/i-thought-gay-rights-were-safe-now-i-know-i-was-wrong/?utm_term=.abf325a0d3d3&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1Read More

Two contacts this week reminded me why I am passionate about my work to create stable families with two legal parents. First, I received a call from a couple that was adopting though CPS and was refused by the judge just two hours before the adoption hearing – solely because they were a lesbian couple. ...Read More

I am proud to be on the NCLR National Family Law Advisory Council. The following is their press release regarding Trump’s transgender service member announcement: NCLR’s Shannon Price Minter responds to Trump’s announcement regarding transgender service members “In three tweets, Trump is purporting to fire 15,000 transgender service members” (Washington, D.C., July 26, 2017)—Today, Trump...Read More

The 2017 Texas Law, HB 3859, which allows broad discrimination by adoption agencies will undoubtedly harm the thousands of children who have already been abused or neglected by their birth parents and desperately need loving homes. The law allows agencies to discriminate because of any “sincerely held religious belief.” Private adoption agencies can already set...Read More

While it feels really great for a birth mother’s wife to be listed on a Texas birth certificate, the Wren case (Beaumont court of Appeals, 2017) clearly shows why lesbian couples cannot rely on a birth certificate alone to establish parentage for the second mother. Two women, CW and AE, were married in Connecticut in...Read More

Hopefully, your family has lots of support and encouragement – from relatives and friends.  Still, there is nothing like the support of other LGBT parents. If you don’t know many gay parents, I encourage you to start a group.   I did and it was great. When our teenage daughters we small, I realized they...Read More

The LGBT citizens of our nation are reeling after the presidential election. What does a Trump presidency mean for our community? Will the gains that we have made be undone? During my thirty years as a lawyer and gay rights activist I have seen great progress. By being out and proud, we have introduced ourselves...Read More