The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday
sided with the estranged wife of a gay woman seeking parental rights.
The case involves Kimberly and Suzan
McLaughlin, who had a son through artificial insemination while
married in 2011. The couple, who married in 2008 in California and
later moved to Tucson, had a legal agreement to shared parenting, but
Kimberley, the child's biological mother, opposed the arrangement
after the women separated. In seeking a divorce, Suzan asked for
parenting time.
Kimberly's attorney in June argued that
Suzan was not entitled to parental rights because an Arizona law that
presumes the husband in a marriage to be the parent of any child born
within 10 months of a marriage only applies to opposite-sex couples.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice
Scott Bales said that a spouse's sex is irrelevant because the
Supreme Court in Obergefell ruled that gay and lesbian couples
are entitled to civil marriage “on the same terms and conditions as
opposite-sex couples.”
“It would be inconsistent … to
conclude that same-sex couples can legally marry but states can deny
them the same benefits of marriage afforded opposite-sex couples,”
Bales
said.
Bales also called on Arizona lawmakers
to repeal laws that discriminate against same-sex couples.