Bisexual Awareness Week: Family Law Challenges for Bi and Pan Parents

The idea of one type of traditional family is pretty worn out. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and each deserves the rights and freedoms of the next. We look to celebrating Bisexual Awareness Week by paying attention to how bisexual and pansexual people manage the families they create.

Every family experience intersects with family law in complicated ways. A parent could have had children during an opposite-sex marriage before later involving same-sex child custody. Two partners might build their family through donor connections. A non-biological parent could be the primary caregiver from birth, only to get hit with difficult legal rights when that relationship ends.

It is important to consider how LGBTQIA+ family law in North Carolina affects these families and identify issues before they evolve into disputes.

Can a Same-Sex Relationship Affect Child Custody?

Say, for example, a bisexual parent divorces an opposite-sex spouse. Several years later, the parent begins dating someone of the same sex. The question is whether the former spouse could use that new relationship to challenge child custody.

North Carolina courts, like most other states, try to do what is best for the child. Judges consider everything from living arrangements to a parent’s ability to care for a child. That’s an important line in the sand for bisexual child custody cases. The most important issue is the child’s welfare, not that the parent had an opposite-sex partner and now has a same-sex partner.

A court will always examine issues affecting a child’s safety, stability, or overall well-being. It is best to focus on the facts that impact the child more than on assumptions about sexual orientation.

Assisted Reproduction Can Create Parentage Questions

Bisexual family law also involves people using assisted reproduction. There must be a long-term view of how pregnancy, birth, and the legal relationship of the intended parent will affect the child.

The current statute N.C.G.S. § 49A-1 addresses children conceived through heterologous artificial insemination. Inside that statute are the terms “husband and wife.” It outlines the people who requested and consented in writing to the procedures.

Modern families look very different from that 1971 statute. Bi, pan, and LGBTQIA+ couples may seek to use donor sperm, eggs, IVF, or other options to become parents. There is still a lot of confusion and complications over defining those relationships legally because of older statutes that have not caught up to modern situations.

What Rights Does a Non-Biological Parent Have?

When a baby is born, there could later be questions of LGBTQIA+ parental rights when one parent doesn’t have a biological connection. In North Carolina, legal parents have constitutionally protected rights about their children.

Non-parents can seek custody, but only under specific circumstances and with additional requirements. For example, a non-relative seeking custody must establish a deep relationship with that child. They must overcome the legal parent’s protected rights.

Some case law addresses these situations. In Mason v. Dwinnell, a same-sex couple decided to have a child. One partner used artificial insemination. Even so, the North Carolina Court of Appeals concluded the non-biological partner had standing to seek custody because of the parent-child relationship that was created and fostered.

Each case is unique. The non-biological parent’s rights depend heavily on the family’s history and the steps taken along the way.

Protect Your Parental Rights Before a Dispute Begins

Families tend to make decisions when those relationships are strong. When questions about legal parentage come into play, it becomes harder to agree on who Mom, Dad, or another parent is. Any separation can expose gaps that are easy to overlook.

When anyone, including those in the bi and pan communities, wishes to establish parentage, pursue adoption, document assisted reproduction, or gain custody, there needs to be as much legal clarity as possible for the short and long term.

During Bisexual Awareness Week, Woodruff Family Law Group wishes to recognize those in the LGBTQIA+ community facing these types of challenges. We understand that your family is more than a label or biological connection.

Whenever questions arise about same-sex child custody, bisexual divorce, or non-biological parent rights, our family law attorneys can help you better understand how North Carolina laws apply to the family you built. After all, the children matter most, and the people who care for them should be allowed to do so consistently.