A Long Overdue Piece of Legislation

A Private Member’s Bill brought forward by MLC Tanya August-Hanson to finally bring parity for Manx parents with those in the UK moved a step closer after LegCo gave it unanimous support.

Ms August-Hanson is proposing an amendment be made to the Children and Young Persons Act 2001 which will allow for same sex couples to both be registered as parents, while also amending the Civil Registration Act 1984 to allow same sex couples to register births.

In moving her motion this week, Ms August-Hanson said she was asked to raise the issue by parents who, due to their sexuality, are unable to be registered as both either as fathers or mothers of their child.

The MLC gave the example of one couple who used a donor but as only one of them was able to carry the child to birth, only she was allowed to be registered as the child’s mother.

Ms August-Hanson told Gef: ‘Presently, female-female partners could become parents but only the female that carried the child would be the mother. So the second female parent would be the legal parent and that’s just not an acceptable situation. On the other side of the fence, male-male partners, they need to use a surrogacy arrangement and to apply for a parent order to become a child’s legal parent, only heterosexual and married couples can actually do that.’

Other areas these changes would resolve include the requirement for a father to be present at the registration of a birth to be included on a child’s birth certificate whereas a mother is automatically included.

These laws have been in place in England and Wales since 2008.

Gef understands that the gov has no issue with this Private Member’s Bill being moved and the DHSC intends to support Ms August-Hanson in progressing her Bill through Tynwald.

You can see the full sitting of LegCo below: