Third-Parent-Bill

California is the only state in the Union where a child can have more than two parents. This legal scenario is reserved for limited, unique family circumstances, where there are two biological parents, but a third parent is confirmed by way of being married to or in a legal domestic partnership with the biological parent during conception. There are a lot of requirements to qualify for this, and Allysyn can listen to your unique situation to help you determine what your rights are. This bill was enacted after a case in which a bisexual woman, married her wife, and during the marriage, got pregnant by her boyfriend. Shortly after giving birth, the mother unfortunately went to prison for drug charges. While she was incarcerated, her wife and boyfriend were arguing over custody of the child. Under California law, the wife had legal standing to be declared the parent, because she was married to the mother at the time of birth, and the boyfriend had legal standing to be declared the parent, because he was biologically the child’s other parent. They both were right. So, the legislature enacted this bill, and the court found them to all three be the parents of the child. Wife and boyfriend shared custody and visitation of the child, and both were responsible for child support. There are pretty unique circumstances that must be present for a family law judge to assign more than two parents to a child. Simply being married to a parent after the children are born, and helping to parent them is not enough, thus being a step-parent alone will not convince the family law judge to assign the step-parent any parentage.