A judge has removed a Sydney father’s name from his daughter’s birth certificate and replaced it with the name of her lesbian mother’s former partner.
Judge Stephen Walmsley said he had no choice, because a 2009 retrospective law gives the birth mother’s former partner legal parenting status and allows only two “parents” to be recognised. As a result, John Williams (not his real name) is no longer recognised as the father of his ten-year-old daughter.
The judge said Mr Williams has had a close and loving relationship with the girl all her life, contributing thousands of dollars to the girl’s upkeep and generously helping her birth mother. Mr Williams (58) is devasated. As a donor father, he has consent orders for fortnightly visits through the Family Court. However the mother has been ignoring these orders and he has not seen his daughter for several months.
“I am her biological father. I am 50 per cent of her heritage – not just for my daughter but all subsequent generations. In 100 years when they look back at their family tree, it’s all going to stop at this lesbian,” Mr Williams says.
The lesbian couple have split up, and the non-biological mother now has a new partner.
“My daughter now has three mothers but no father,” Mr Williams says.
Source: Reprinted from VoxLink by permission of FamilyVoice Australia, www.fava.org.au.
September 2011, p. 2.
Leave a Reply