'Prioritise Same-Sex Parental Rights'

A backbench politician is demanding that the government follow up on years of promises and lodge a new law to give same-sex parents full parental responsibility for their own children.

Deputy Louise Doublet says nothing has changed, despite being told for six years that this work was being prioritised.

Same-sex couples in Jersey have to go through a lengthy and often expensive court process to make sure both have parental responsibility.

Deputy Doublet has lodged a proposition, calling on the Children and Education Minister to prioritise this work so a draft law can be debated before the election.

She's heard from many people about the difficulties they've faced.

"For example, spending thousands of pounds and investing years of your life in IVF treatment for your wife and then watching her give birth to your child, but then being told that you cannot be the legal parent of that child that you share together.

Being told that you can't take your child to your home country because the law doesn't recognise your child as your own.

Watching your wife going through surgery and not actually having parental responsibility for your child that you're left caring for at home.

I think it's fair to say that the processes at the moment are often humiliating, stressful, costly, and exhausting for the LGBTQ+ families who are having to go through these processes and it's really important that the law changes to give these families the same rights as all parents in the island."

Deputy Doublet was told by former Chief Minister Senator Ian Gorst in 2016 that the law would be updated in 2017 'to allow same-sex parents who are named on the birth certificate to also automatically be granted parental responsibility and this will form part of the package of changes being brought forward in relation to same-sex marriage.'

The Housing and Communities Minister also told Deputy Doublet on 1 February 2021 that he expected law drafting instructions to be issued by the end of the same month.

Both deadlines came and went.

Deputy Doublet has called the lack of equality in law between same-sex and mixed-sex couples 'hurtful and discriminatory' - and questions whether it's because 'this affects a group of people who've been historically marginalised.'

"We were promised these changes by the previous government - that didn't happen - and the previous political term ended. I don't want to see the same thing happening.

It's a resource issue. We can put in resources to make sure that this happens before the end of this political term and I hope that the whole States Assembly gets behind this so we can make sure we have these rights in place for these families.

I need to hear from the Council of Ministers that this is enough of a priority that they will put appropriate resources in place to make sure that it's completed by the end of this term."

Kaye Nicholson-Horn is one person who has been affected by the current law and says it's something she's been highlighting since the birth of son Silas in 2016.

Her wife Chantal wasn't able to go on his birth certificate and be recognised as his legal parent.

They needed to go through a court process to get her that parental responsibility.

Kaye says it was a process no family wants to have to go through.

"It's an additional strain when you have a new baby, it's costly and it takes time and we felt when we went to court that we were having to justify our existence as a family and seek approval and recognition which really no family should ever have to do.

If I'd given birth to my son in the UK, there would have been absolutely no issue whatsoever. My wife would have been put on the birth certificate and we wouldn't have had to go through this additional stress and cost and time consumed in this legal process.

Those of us who already have some children, we're hoping that we can get retrospective birth certificates issued and those couples who are expecting currently, ideally, as soon as this (law) comes in place, they won't need to go through the processes that we did. They will be automatically recognised as both legal parents.

This is a very key step in equality and inclusion in Jersey and one that really should have been done quite some time ago in our opinion, so the sooner that this can get done the better and the greater benefit it will be for families on the island."