Board of Contributors: 5th DCA says split lesbian couple still shares parental rights

In a case of first impression, the 5th District Court of Appeal recently decided T.M.H. v. D.M.T. (no. 5D09-3559), addressing “whether two women involved in a lesbian relationship for several years share parental rights and responsibilities to a child born out of that relationship.”

In a lengthy and contentious 2–1 decision, the majority held that both women share parental rights to the child. It reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the birth mother and against the biological mother, declared unconstitutional the statute at the center of the dispute, Florida Statute section 742.14, and certified the following question as a matter of great public importance: Does application of section 742.14 to deprive parental rights to a lesbian woman who provided her ova to her lesbian partner so both women could have a child to raise together as equal parental partners and who did parent the child for several years after its birth render the statute unconstitutional under the Equal Protection and Privacy clauses of the federal and state constitutions?