Gov. Brown signs parentage-protection bill Professor Joslin helped draft

On Sept. 28, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2684, which offers the same legal protection to children of same-sex couples as is afforded to other families. Professor Courtney Joslin helped draft the legislation.

AB 2684 ensures that the Uniform Parentage Act codifies the principle of equal parentage protections for LGBTQ families into California law. The state’s existing parentage statutes are based on the 1973 Uniform Parentage Act (UPA), which provided states with a legal framework for establishing parent-child relationships. A core goal of the original 1973 UPA was to eliminate the discriminatory treatment of non-marital children. Since 1975, there have been various updates to the act based on recommendations by the Uniform Law Commission, a nonpartisan panel of lawyers that provides states with research and draft legislation in order to promote enactment of uniform state laws.

Professor Joslin was a reporter for the 2017 Uniform Parentage Act update.

The new legislation updates terms, presumptions, and statutory provisions to ensure that parents and children are treated equally, regardless of whether the children are born to same-sex or opposite-sex couples. Next, the law updates genetic testing provisions to clarify that they apply equally to men and women. Finally, AB 2684 creates a process whereby children conceived with donated sperm or ova can get medical information about the donor and may, at 18 years of age and if the donor agrees, receive identifying information about the donor.

Professor Joslin is a scholar in the field of family and relationship recognition, with a particular focus on same-sex and non-marital couples.