A bill in Massachusetts that aims to amend state law to redefine legal parenthood has successfully passed through the state senate on Thursday and is now awaiting the signature of Democratic Governor Maura Healey to become enacted.
The Massachusetts Parentage Act is designed to promote “legal parentage equality” for children born to parents “regardless of their marital status, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or the circumstances of their birth, including those conceived through assisted reproduction or surrogacy,” according to the bill’s text.
The legislation mandates the removal of gender-specific terms such as “father” and “mother” from state parentage laws, replacing them with more “inclusive” alternatives like “parent” or “the individual who gave birth.” Supporters argue that this bill safeguards the legal parenting rights of diverse families, including LGBTQ families.
State Senator Julian Cyr, a Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, expressed his enthusiasm for the bill’s passage on X, stating, “LGBTQ+ families like mine encounter unnecessary and costly obstacles just to ensure our children have legal parentage protections. The Senate passing this bill is a crucial move toward achieving parentage equality in Massachusetts!”
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The LGBTQ advocacy group GLAD, based in Boston, lauded the passage of the “historic” Massachusetts Parentage Act. (Sophia Groves/Getty Images)
The bill gained traction on social media this week when the popular account Libs of TikTok highlighted its passage on X, attracting millions of views and numerous negative comments from detractors.
“And they claim conservatives are the ones ‘waging war’ against women: It would also replace ‘man’ & ‘woman’ with ‘persons’ and change ‘mother’ to ‘person who gave birth,'” author Nancy Pearcey commented.
“It has always been about altering our language, dismantling the family, and ultimately infringing upon our rights & freedoms,” former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines expressed.
The Massachusetts legislation would also broaden the concept of legal parenthood through surrogacy. (iStock)
Fox News Digital reached out to the bill’s co-sponsors to address specific criticisms regarding the legislation but did not receive a response.
Governor Healey has previously voiced her support for this bill, which she described as being long overdue.
“We’ve been proud to lead the nation in advocating for LGBTQ+ equality, but there’s still more work to be done,” Healey commented in April, as reported by The Boston Globe. “Let’s pass the Massachusetts Parentage Act to ensure that every family receives the legal protections they rightfully deserve.”
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If signed into law, Massachusetts will join Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont in having enacted similar parentage legislation in recent years, according to the Boston-based LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAD.
