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"Every step we take toward a future where equal rights, acceptance and tolerance are the rule should be celebrated in America." Harrisburg lawyer says..
(Harrisburg, PA) -- While the California Supreme Court decision striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman will make California only the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages, Harrisburg attorney Suzanne S. Friday said today that Dauphin County Orphan's Court should be recognized for its equal application of the law to non-traditional families. "Today the California Supreme Court recognized 'that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation.' " Mrs. Friday said. "This is good news in terms of equal rights." She added. "So as the news of the California decision travels around the world, we should also note that our own Dauphin County Orphan's Court is as cognizant of equal rights in this area of law." Mrs. Friday, an attorney in the firm of Nauman Smith Shissler & Hall, LLP, said that the Dauphin County Orphan’s Court ruling in February that two women in a long-term committed relationship were indeed the legal parents of twins prior to their birth, relied on reasoning similar to the California decision. "Every step we take toward a future where equal rights, acceptance and tolerance are the rule should be celebrated." She noted. The case, which Mrs. Friday successfully presented, involved a same-sex couple that sought to be legally recognized as parents of twins recently born in an in vitro fertilization procedure to the biological mother. "This legal step is commonly called a "pre-birth order," Mrs. Friday said. "It's a legal action that establishes who the parent and/or legal guardian is before birth actually occurs." This is typically advised when, as with this couple, an anonymous sperm donor was used to fertilize eggs from the biological mother. After reviewing the two women's request for assisted conception birth registrations, the court decided that both women must be listed as the legal parents on the children's birth certificates, and that no father is to be listed. "By granting a pre-birth order to a same-sex couple in this case," Mrs. Friday said, "the court recognizes that a biological connection is not always necessary to make a family." "By supporting the idea that two loving parents -- even if nontraditional parents -- are more beneficial for the child, the Dauphin County Orphan's Court decision is encouraging news, and a groundbreaking development for nontraditional families," Friday says. "And this action deserves to be recognized as such." A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Mrs. Friday received her Juris Doctor, Cum Laude from Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware, where she served on the staff of the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, received a Widener University faculty award scholarship, and was a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Delta Phi, Harrington Inn. In addition, Mrs. Friday received her Masters of Law in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. Founded in 1871, Nauman, Smith, Shissler & Hall, LLP,
is the oldest law firm in continuous existence in
Harrisburg. For further information on this subject or about
the firm, visit the Nauman Smith Web site at, www.nssh.com Editor note:
Ms. Friday is available for comment on this subject.
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