queer family needs recognition

James Dobson's Focus on the Family has joined the fight against a queer family in Canada who wish to designate three legal gaurdians for their son. The boy's biological father and mother are legally recognized but not the mother's lesbian partner. We need a way to ensure that families of all kinds are protected and cared for.

Gay Family Want 3 Parents For Childby 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
September
(Toronto, Ontario) In the first case of its kind in Canada, possibly the world, a court is being asked to designate a lesbian couple and their son's biological father all the boy's legal parents. One partner, the biological mother, and the father already officially are the legal parents. The other partner is seeking to be named the third legal guardian. Both biological parents support the application by the mother's
partner. Since the case involves a minor the names of all involved are protected
by the court. Final submissions were made this week to the Ontario Court of Appeal - the highest court in Ontario.
"The family has evolved over the years in a way that the law should recognize the reality of this little boy," the father's lawyer, Alfred Mamo, told the Globe and Mail.
"his reality being that he's got two mothers and a father with whom he thrives.
They all want this for their son." The lawyer for the partner seeking to be
the third parent argues that Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be
violated if she is rejected. "It's discriminatory, because one of them gets
legally recognized -- the biological mother -- but the non-biological mother,
who is equally part of the process except for the biological bits, can't be
legally recognized even though they both decided to have a child, planned for
the child, arranged for the procreation and the birth, and they both jointly
parent the child," attorney Peter Jervis said.
Conservative social action groups, including the Catholic Civil Rights League, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Focus on the Family have filed a so-called friend of the court brief opposing the appeal. In 2003 a lower court rejected the partner's attempt to be listed as a co-parent.
In his ruling, Mr. Justice David Aston said the woman plays the role of parent to the child in every sense imaginable, and suggested that allowing the trio to share equal rights as parents would be in the boy's best interests. "The child is a bright,
healthy, happy individual who is obviously thriving in a loving family that
meets his every need," he said. "The applicant has been a daily and consistent
presence in his life. She is fully committed to a parental role."
But Ontario law, he ruled, binds his hands. Provincial family law allows two parents of the opposite sex, or two parents of the same sex, but not three parents.
Among the Court of Appeal justices hearing the case is Chief Justice Roy
McMurtry. The court under McMurtry was the first in Canada to strike down
the ban on same-sex marriage leading to similar rulings in most other provinces
and resulting in the federal government rewriting marriage law to provide for
gay marriage.