What is the legal status of child-parent relationships in same-sex families?
It is important to understand the legal status of parent-child relationships in same-sex families in order to determine how the various federal law definitions of ‘child’, ‘dependent child’ and ‘dependant’ apply to those families. The most recent Australian census results suggest that approximately 20% of lesbian couples and 5% of gay male couples in Australia are raising children.[1] These child-parent relationships arise in many different ways. Some children are born to one member of a same-sex couple during an earlier opposite-sex relationship. Many children are born to lesbian couples using donor sperm and ART.[2] Some children are being born into and raised by gay male couples with the help of a female friend or through a surrogacy arrangement. A few children may be adopted by one or both members of a same-sex couple. Felicity Martin and Sara Lowe explain how much thought they put into forming a family: Felicity and I have been in a relationship for 6 years. We have spent 4 years
