Introduction

Part I . What Makes a Good Parent?

1 Mothers on Trial

2 Fathers Come out of the Closet

Part I I . Who Is a Parent?

3 Breaking up Is Hard to Do

4 Donate Here, Parent There

5 When the State Discriminates

Part I I I . Can Transsexuals Be Parents?

6 Gender Does Not Make a Parent

Conclusion

Notes

Index

About the Author

The Right to be
Parents is the first book to provide a detailed history of how LGBT parents
have turned to the courts to protect and defend their relationships with their
children. Carlos A. Ball chronicles the stories of LGBT parents who, in seeking
to gain legal recognition of and protection for their relationships with their
children, have fundamentally changed how American law defines and regulates
parenthood. To this day, some courts are still not able to look beyond sexual
orientation and gender identity in cases involving LGBT parents and their
children. Yet on the whole, Ball's stories are of progress and transformation:
as a result of these pioneering LGBT parent litigants, the law is increasingly
recognizing the wide diversity in American familial structures.