“I
am relieved and overjoyed that the court recognized me as my son’s
mother,” said Suzan McLaughlin. “All I have ever wanted is to be there
for him like any mother would.”
“We are pleased that the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled—consistent with Obergefell—that
same-sex parents and their children have the same rights as other
families,” said Cathy Sakimura, Family Law Director at the National
Center for Lesbian Rights. “The U.S. Supreme Court has twice explained
that the U.S. Constitution requires states to provide the exact same
rights to same-sex spouses and different-sex spouses.”
Suzan
McLaughlin and Kimberly McLaughlin were a married lesbian couple who
had a child in 2011 using an anonymous sperm donor. After separating in
2013, Kimberly stopped allowing Suzan to see their child, and Suzan
filed a legal action to be recognized as a parent. Both the Arizona
Court of Appeals and the trial court held that Suzan should indeed be
recognized as a legal parent to her child. NCLR and Arizona attorney
Claudia Work represented Suzan. Additionally, Professor Barbara Atwood
and the Child and Family Law Clinic at the University of Arizona Rogers
College of Law, as well as 23 Arizona family law attorneys, filed amicus
briefs in support of Suzan.
Since the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality decision, Obergefell v. Hodges,
numerous cases have recognized that married same-sex parents and
married different-sex parents must be treated equally under the law. In
June 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Pavan v. Smith, another National Center for Lesbian Rights case, that Obergefell required
states to treat married same-sex parents and married different-sex
parents equally. The Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in McLaughlin follows this settled law and should be instructive to other states across the country considering this issue.
For more information on NCLR’s June 2017 U.S. Supreme Court victory in Pavan v. Smith, click here.