March 11, 2021 at 9:02 AM
Shares12
This past week, three men broke the internet by publicly telling their story as the first polyamorous throuple (like a couple, but with three people) to all be legally named as parents of the same children. A California court named Ian Jenkins and both of his male partners as legal parents of their two children. Jenkins has a book out on their experience — Three Dads and a Baby: Adventures in Modern Parenting.
Is this new?
Yes and no. California has permitted more than two parent families by statute since 2013. However, a particularly unique characteristic of the Jenkins’ ruling, aside from his polyamorous relationship (versus other forms of three-parent families that have been recognized) is that the dads received their rulings pre-birth of the children. Pursuant to California surrogacy law, and as is customary in many states, a court rules on the parentage of a child carried by a surrogate during the pregnancy. Jenkins described how the judge hesitated with their first child to set a new precedent by declaring three men to have parental rights to the same child before the birth. However, the judge was persuaded in an emotional hearing that it would have been wrong to leave any one of the dads off the birth certificate or to deny him parental rights. When their second child came along, no hearing was needed to come to the same decision.