The country has observed rapid and significant changes across a number of states in respect of how same-sex relations are recognized, more so since the seminal Supreme Court ruling in United States-v- Windsor.

In a timely and apposite piece by San Francisco attorney, Deborah Wald, she highlights that despite the increasing steps towards equality, it is still imperative for parents in same-sex relationships not to rely solely on their marital status as a method of ascribing equal parental rights. Thus, even though DOMA may have been declared as being unconstitutional parents may still have to adopt their own child.

However, what makes it particularly difficult for the lay client who is a parent in a same-sex relationship trying to negotiate this legal ambiguity, is the variation of approaches across different states. In a recent New York case, a judge ruled that under New York’s Marriage Equality Law, same-sex marriages enjoyed the same privileges and presumptions in respect of parental rights that are afforded to heterosexual marriages -i.e a child born to a married woman is presumed to be the legal child of that woman’s spouse. On that basis the judge ruled that that option of adoption was “neither necessary nor available”.