Navigating Divorce and Child Custody in a Same-Sex Marriage
In the event a same-sex marriage ends in divorce, you may be wondering what happens with your children and how child custody will work. At Goldweber Epstein, LLP, the LGBTQ community and the needs of same-sex couples are important to us. Our family law and child custody attorneys can help you navigate your divorce and arrange for child custody with your ex-partner. Although there is nothing explicitly different about same-sex child custody agreements, there are factors that can make it more complicated.
What Factors Affect Child Custody?
There are a few key factors to take into consideration when determining child custody. These factors are centered around how the child entered the relationship, including:
- If your child was born into your marriage through in-vitro fertilization, a surrogate or by other means, you should not face much difficulty in sharing custody. In these cases, both spouses are typically considered legal guardians of the child.
- If you and your spouse adopted your child together, and both parents are on the adoption paperwork as legal guardians, there should not be an issue in claiming custody. If your adoption paperwork only included one parent, there may be issues in sharing custody.
- If a child was born of one spouse prior to the marriage or adopted by one spouse prior to marriage, you may run into problems requesting joint custody. The non-biological parent (or non-adoptive parent) will have no legal rights or responsibilities to the child, unless the child was legally adopted by that parent after the marriage.
In most cases where there is a legal discrepancy as to the rights of a parent, a step-parent adoption may be able to resolve the issue. In doing so, child custody can be awarded after the step-parent adoption is complete because it will then grant legal rights to the child in a divorce.
New York Child Custody Lawyers
Divorce and child custody in same-sex marriages meet many of the same issues and concerns as non-same sex marriages. Partners want what is best for their children and will need to determine what is appropriate in their unique situation.
Our New York child custody attorneys can help you set up a joint custody agreement or fight for sole custody in your divorce. We have fought for the rights of our LGBTQ community for over 30 years and this fight does not exclude the rights of parents to their children. Let our team of experienced lawyers stand by your side as you face your divorce.
If you are tackling a divorce and have questions about same-sex custody rulings, contact our team today at (917) 809-7669.