A sperm donor has been ordered to pay child support for the biological daughter he fathered to a lesbian couple who found him via Craigslist. Angela Bauer, 40, and partner Jennifer Schreiner, 34, placed an ad on the site three years ago for a donor which was answered by William Marotta…. ‘We are foster and adoptive parents and now we desire to share a pregnancy and birth together,’ Bauer wrote in the online posting. Mr Marotta provided sperm which was used for artificial insemination by Ms Schreiner. In return, he gave up parental rights including financial duties for the child. The three signed a legal document which stated Mr Marotta, a married mechanic who fosters children with his wife, would have no rights to the child.
I’m not sure this story should be filed under “Kansas REALLY, REALLY hates Lesbians,” or “Kansas REALLY, REALLY hates those who help Lesbians.” In what has to be one of the most cynical, craven attempts to have their legal cake and eat it, too, Kansas is suing to have a sperm donor declared the legal father in an effort to dun him for child support. There are many instances in which I’m initially dumbstruck, but this story is one of those times. Either someone at the Kansas DCF REALLY hate Lesbians, or they REALLY hate those who donate sperm to Lesbian couples wanting to have children. Even as cynical as I can be at times (and no, I’m not proud of it), not even I could have imagined a circumstance in which a state agency could be so craven and mean-spirited…not to mention thoroughly misguided…as to take these steps.
This is Kansas (“If you were meant to have children, one of you would’ve been issued a penis”) we’re talking about, so of course my first reaction is to wonder if they would do the same thing if the parents were a heterosexual couple. Any answer would, of course, be purely conjecture, but you can probably imagine what side of the fence I’m going to come down on. I sincerely doubt that DCF would do the same thing in the same manner if the parents were straight. I can’t prove that, of course, but if you’ve paid attention to what’s been happening in Kansas over the past few years, my opinion isn’t much of a stretch.
DCF’s argument is that the legal agreement Marotta signed is invalid because the insemination wasn’t performed by a doctor. Why a doctor needed to be involved when a turkey baster probably did the trick seems another example of hyper-religious Kansas Conservatives using the power of government to harass non-heterosexuals.
Yeah, so how’s that “small government” thing working out for you?? And who’s going to want to be a sperm donor if they know that down the road they could be dunned for child support?
