Massachusetts Legislature unanimously passes radical LGBT “parentage equality” bill to redefine the family.

Removes the words “mother” and “father” from statutes – and more.

Pushed by aggressive LGBT group. Children will be the major victims.

House and Senate Republicans all voted for it.

August 5, 2024

Members of the Massachusetts Legislature celebrate "Pride Month" outside the State House just before passing the LGBT "parentage" bill in the House. [PHOTO: State House News]

When the LGBT movement used the courts to force same-sex “marriage” on America, the talking point was, “This won’t affect anything else.” But now it’s evident their next major goal was to use state legislatures to completely redefine the family.

Several states have already passed laws in that direction. But now the Massachusetts Legislature has surpassed them, passing – unanimously in both branches – a frightening 42-page comprehensive bill. It has already received national attention and is considered to be the most radical change in family law history. Openly lesbian Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has committed to signing the bill.

Same-sex couples cannot conceive and bear children naturally. Society’s mother-father legal paradigm makes the same-sex “family” structure an abnormality. Babies are brought into the relationship through artificial means (IVF), through surrogacy, or naturally birthed by one of the same-sex partners. Depending on the circumstances, one or both of the same-sex partners would have had to adopt the baby for them to be a legal “family.”  But same-sex couples have been vocal that they consider the adoption requirement to be an annoying obstacle.

So the LGBT movement demands that the laws be changed to remove any statutory difference between normal family structure and their structures. They also want to legally streamline the surrogacy process. Plus, they insist on changing family law so that the adoption process is no longer necessary for both members of the same-sex relationship to be considered the legal parents.

What this new law does

This bill is mind-numbing to read. The LGBT movement has brought legal chaos to family law, adding numerous variations to how families can be formed. Here are some of the points that stand out:

• It’s been fairly common to pay a woman for surrogacy (carrying a baby for someone else) prior to pregnancy. But it hasn’t been something that’s included in family law. This bill includes surrogacy agreements for pay – to specifically make it a “normal” part of society that’s sanctioned by the state and is not limited to before the pregnancy. Not only can a woman be paid to carry a child for someone else, but she can be in the business of getting pregnant via sperm donors in order to sell the babies to the highest bidders.
• Throughout Massachusetts family law, the word “paternity” (meaning actual biological parents) is replaced with “parentage” (which is defined as “a legal relationship” between a child and the adult).
• The word “mother” in family law is replaced with “person who gave birth to the child.” The word “father” is replaced with “other parent.” In addition, the roles of father and mother are removed from the statutes and replaced with gender-neutral terminology. Even the words “a man and a woman” are replaced with “persons.”
• The baby’s biological mother and father can now be changed on the birth certificate to the two same-sex adults. Even the “intended parents” (a new legal term) can be listed on the birth certificate instead of the biological parents.
• The new law creates new legal issues to be resolved. If one member of the same-sex couple claims to be the actual parent, and the other doubts that, there is a process in the law to resolve this in court, and the term “alleged genetic parent” is used.
• The law applies differently to “a child conceived by sexual intercourse or assisted reproduction under a surrogacy agreement” versus other means.
• The laws regarding divorce and child custody are also changed dramatically to allow for these new family/child relationship permutations. 
• A sperm donor shall not be considered to be the actual father of the child, despite his obvious genetic connection. But a woman who, at the time of a child’s birth, is the same-sex spouse of the woman who gave birth to the child by “assisted reproduction” is automatically considered to be the other parent.
• The bill states, “The court may adjudicate a child to have more than 2 parents if the court finds that it is in the best interest of the child.”

And there’s a lot more complicated detail in the bill that would take a family law attorney to unravel, and that could cause many unexpected consequences. But we are quite sure that no unbiased attorneys were asked to analyze it.

State Sen. Julian Cyr (right), an aggressive LGBT activist, talks with another legislator after the final vote on the "parentage" bill. Cyr was adamant that the earlier adoption requirement for same-sex couples needed to be removed. [PHOTO: State House News]

How this affects children

Like everything else the LGBT movement pushes on society, this bill is not for the benefit of innocent children.

To be blunt, all these changes are meant to satisfy the selfish desires of bizarre adults. The new law changes innocent children into commodities that can be bought and sold, and possibly fought over. They may never know who their actual parents are, and are destined to grow up in sad, dysfunctional environments.

Moreover, there are a range of other serious issues with “assisted reproduction” procedures.

Lobbying effort in MA organized (and bill likely written) by radical LGBT organization

Not surprisingly, the huge lobbying effort behind this horrible bill came from the well-funded LGBT movement.

GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders) is a major player and in the region’s LGBT movement. In years past, GLAD was the legal advocacy group behind “gay marriage” (as well as the “transgender rights” laws) in Massachusetts and the other New England states.

GLAD was the organizer and prime lobbying force for this bill in the Massachusetts Legislature. They set up a special website area for it, mobilized activists to pressure legislators, and published emotional “stories” for activists to use to pressure legislators.

GLAD's big lobbying push even had its own logo.

GLAD probably wrote the text of the bill. It is very unlikely that a bill this complicated and comprehensive for the LGBT cause could have been written by the staff of any of its sponsors in the Legislature.

Passed into law with shocking 100% Republican support

This odious bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously, including every Republican – a rare feat for something so extreme and offensive to most people (and particularly to religious Catholics).

It certainly got support from the GOP leadership. The Republican Senate Minority Leader (and lifelong bachelor) Sen. Bruce Tarr was a co-sponsor and a vocal supporter. According to reports, the House Minority leader was also a strong advocate.

The Massachusetts GOP (RINO) State Party was also on the bandwagon. Soon after the bill passed, they sent out an email praising the bill as “ensuring that families formed through adoption and surrogacy have legal mothers and fathers” – repeating one of the misleading LGBT talking points.

Is this a coming trend among Republicans across America?

By now everyone knows how the national Republican Convention in Milwaukee purged this year’s party platform of its support for traditional marriage, pro-life language, and a long list of other things. (See this powerful summary by C. J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts.)

Major Republican political figures – most notoriously Donald and Melania Trump – now openly support the LGBT movement and even raise money for LGBT lobbying efforts. Republican leaders figured out that pro-family conservatives have nowhere else to go, so the GOP doesn’t have to bother with them. And conservatives shamefully don’t complain.

This is likely going to get worse, unfortunately. We should not be surprised that state and local Republican elected officials are following that lead.

Final thoughts

This is just the next step in the LGBT movement’s long march against normalcy.

And the legislators – even the Republicans – seem completely uninterested in how this affects children, families, or anyone else. They are clearly only interested in basking in the glow of leftist approval and virtue signaling.

Pro-family groups warned at the onset of the “gay marriage” push that there would be unforeseen consequences once the country went down this road. Now we see that the entire concept of “family” has been redefined to allow for the parade of perversions.

This needs to serve as a warning to those in other states: It’s coming for you. You will be told to radically change your state’s laws to satisfy a tiny minority of dysfunctional people. Be prepared to take on the battle in your legislatures!