How Ohio's Supreme Court could change parental rights for same-sex couples

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Ohio Supreme Court has been asked to decide how the state's parentage laws apply to same-sex couples who raised children but separated before same-sex marriage became legal.

The Ohio couple in the case, Priya Shahani and Carmen Edmonds, were together from 2003 to 2015 and had three children together through artificial insemination. Though Shahani was the biological mother, the two gave each child the last name of "Edmonds-Shahani" and completed legal documents recognizing the other as an equal co-parent.

Shahani and Edmonds never legally married, as their relationship deteriorated in 2015 before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage bans, like prohibitions that were on the books in Ohio, are unconstitutional. In the break up, the couple entered into a formal agreement that divided their property and set a parenting schedule for their children.

However, Shahani later removed "Edmonds" from the children's last name and filed legal motions to terminate their agreement. Edmonds then filed a petition in 2017 "to establish her parental rights," but the Hamilton County Juvenile Court held that a same-sex partner does not fall within the definition of a "parent" under Ohio law. This is because Edmonds was neither biologically related to the children and was not married to their birthmother.

A trial court ruled against terminating the agreement and ordered that Edmonds could have "companionship time" with the children but did not grant a her "parentage" request. Both Shahani and Edmonds appealed to the First District Appellate Court, which decided that the trial court needed to hold a hearing to determine if the couple "would have been married" if Ohio had already allowed same-sex marriage.

Appealing to the Ohio Supreme Court, Shahani said a state court "does not have the authority to disregard Ohio's statute banning common-law marriage and order a person into an unlicensed and manufactured marriage."

Now, the case has caught the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, which filed a brief to the state's supreme court on behalf of the National Association of Social Workers, arguing that Edmonds would be a legally recognized parent of the three children had Ohio law provided a path for same-sex marriage at the time of their birth.

"Edmonds has been nurturing the three children that she helped bring into this world throughout their lives," said Amy Gilbert, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Ohio. "The overwhelming body of social science research confirms that there is potentially devastating harm inflicted on a child if separated from a parental figure, and that this harm does not depend on whether there is a biological link between the two."

Gilbert said the court "should be guided by best interests of the child," regardless of whether the parents are the same or opposite sex. To rule otherwise leaves the children of same-sex couples in Ohio, who were unable to marry before Obergefell, in danger of unequal treatment and exposes them to detrimental social consequences, said Gilbert.