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A new case out of North Carolina. Seems like a familiar story by now, but it has a better ending then some earlier versions.

Two women (Dwinnell and Mason–a lesbian couple) decided to have a child together. They did so via insemination with donor sperm. Dwinnell gave birth. She is clearly recognized as a legal parent of the child. In North Carolina, as in most states, Mason has no such status at the time of the birth of the child. (You will get a different result in those states/countries with some sort of marital/domestic partner presumption in place.)

Now in some states, Mason might have gained legal recognition after the birth of the child through a second-parent adoption. But many states do not provide for such a procedure–North Carolina, for example. (Even in states where second-parent adoptions are permitted, many couples do not complete them.) So in this case, Mason did not gain recognition as a legal parent. However, with the assistance of an able attorney, Mason and Dwinnell executed a series of documents designed to protect and define their family.

In time, Mason and Dwinnell ended their relationship. They continued to co-parent the child for some years, but eventually things deteriorated. Dwinnell reduced Mason’s contact with the child, relying on the fact that Mason was not a parent. Dwinnell argued that Mason therefore had no rights with respect to the child.

Although the North Carolina appellate court considered Mason a third-party rather than a parent, it nonetheless affirmed her right to seek custody of the child. In doing so, it recognized the fact of a parent/child relationship formed by Mason with the approval of Dwinnell. The court found that Dwinnell’s actions in acknowledging and encouraging that relationship had diminished her rights to unilaterally sever the child’s relationship with Mason. It was seen to be in the interests of the child to continue the relationship with Mason.

Other courts have used the idea of a de facto parent to arrive at a similar conclusion in similar cases. Of course, a de facto parent can actually gain full recognition as a parent, something Mason does not quite attain. Nevertheless, the recognition of the reality of the lives of the individuals involved here rather than an insistence on rigid legal forms seems like a nice step forward.