Massachusetts bill redefining parenthood, stripping away 'mother,' 'father,' could soon be state law
The Massachusetts Parentage Act redefines who is considered a parent to expand protections for LGBTQ families. Critics say the bill will hurt children.
A Massachusetts bill, which seeks to update state law to redefine who legally qualifies as a parent, passed in the state senate on Thursday and now awaits signature from Democratic Governor Maura Healey to become law.
The Massachusetts Parentage Act aims to ensure "legal parentage equality" for children born to parents "without regard to the marital status, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation of their parents or the circumstances of their birth, including whether they were born as a result of assisted reproduction or surrogacy," the bill text explains.
The bill requires gendered terms like "father" and "mother" to be stripped from state parentage law and replaced with more "inclusive" terms like "parent" or "the person who gave birth." Advocates say the bill protects the legal parenting rights of diverse and LGBTQ families.
Democratic state senator Julian Cyr, a co-sponsor of the bill, celebrated its passage on X, writing, "LGBTQ+ families like mine face excessive and expensive hoops just to ensure our children have the security of legal parentage. The Senate’s passage of this bill is a critical step towards parentage equality in Massachusetts!"
The bill drew attention on social media this week after the popular account Libs of TikTok noted the bill's passage on X. The post attracted millions of views and thousands of negative comments from critics.
"And they say it's conservatives who are ‘waging war’ against women: It would also replace the terms ‘man’ & ‘woman’ with ‘persons’ and replace 'mother' with ‘person who gave birth,’" author Nancy Pearcey reacted.
"It’s always been about corrupting our language, destroying the family, then taking away our rights & freedoms," former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to co-sponsors of the bill to ask about specific criticisms of the bill, but did not receive a response.
Governor Healey has previously expressed support for the bill, which she said was long overdue.
"We’ve been proud to be a national leader and trailblazer when it comes to LGBTQ+ equality, but we’ve got some catching up to do," Healey said in April, according to The Boston Globe. "Let’s pass the Massachusetts Parentage Act to make sure every family has the legal protections they need and deserve."
If signed, Massachusetts would join Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, who've passed similar parentage legislation in recent years, according to Boston-based LGBTQ advocacy group GLAD.