“Gay Rights Have Gone Too Far!”

A likely response, I expect, to news that a UK man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple, now separated, is being required to pay child support.   The truth, actually, is precisely the opposite.  (1) If the couple had obtained sperm from a donor bank, the man would have no legal responsibilities.  But donor banks are currently permitted (though not required) to turn away lesbian couples because of the absence of a male role model.  (2) If the non-birth-mother had been legally recognised as a parent, the man would not have had any legal responsibilities.  So really what’s needed is MORE gay rights.  Changes to the law are currently being considered: 

Proposed legislation, at committee stage in the House of Lords before passing to the Commons, would give equal parenting rights, including financial responsibilities, to both members of same sex couples, but the change will come too late for Bathie, who is lobbying for the laws to be made retrospective and for him not to be seen as the legal parent of the children, now aged two and four.   

A really nice illustration of interconnectedness. Lesbian rights help heterosexual man!