While the NCLR estimates that there are 25 to 30 lesbian-versus-lesbian cases working their way through the country's courts, Kendell points out that many more gay parents stop short of even trying to pursue visitation or custody rights. 'The single greatest impediment to nonbiological parents' maintaining a relationship with their children is the fact that the legal system does not respect our relationships or consider our families to be `real' families,' says Kathryn Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Such questions have very real and practical, even heart-wrenching, implications for increasing numbers of lesbians and gay men. As a result of Bearse's 'stepmother' status in the case, supermarket tabloids have scurried for the story, and two major gay organizations have been pushed to take sides.īy going public with her personal struggle, Clark hopes to draw attention to a larger issue: Until gay families are recognized by the courts, how can lesbians and gay men resolve the legal conflicts that inevitably arise? And if in the meantime the law is biased against the claims of nonbiological lesbian and gay parents, what is to prevent biological parents from using that bias to their advantage? It has captured broad interest for one reason: Pearce's current partner happens to be Amanda Bearse, costar of the Fox sitcom Married.With Children and a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying group. While the issue has indeed, until recently, been little acknowledged by gay organizations and by the lesbian and gay press, Clark's case is changing all that. The 'dirty little secret' Clark refers to is the growing incidence of such lesbian-versus-lesbian battles for custody or visitation rights in which 'nonbiological' mothers such as Clark are generally left out in the cold by a legal system that does not recognize their relationship to the child. Clark and Pearce were scheduled to go to court January 27 to determine Clark's rights with regard to the 10-year-old girl they had been raising together. 'It's like this dirty little secret in the gay community,' charges Tena Clark, a record producer engaged in a lawsuit against her former lover, Dell Pearce.

Retrieved from Ī high-profile case involving television actor Amanda Bearse exposes the moral dilemmas that can arise for broken gay families MLA style: 'The parent trap.' The Free Library.

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