Gay mother awarded visitation rights by China in historic first
August 19, 2024In a groundbreaking legal case, China has granted visitation rights to a gay mother who has been separated from her daughter for four years.
The woman, known by her nickname Didi, wed her wife in the United States in 2016, according to The Guardian. Later that year, the couple both underwent IVF treatment, using embryos created from her wife’s eggs and donor sperm, which were implanted in both women.
In 2017, Didi gave birth to a girl, while her wife had a boy, with both children being genetically related only to Didi’s wife.
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Upon returning to China, the couple split up in 2019, and Didi’s wife took the children, severing contact with Didi.
Didi went to court to seek joint custody of both kids, marking the first time Chinese courts have dealt with a custody dispute involving a same-sex couple.
As same-sex marriages lack recognition in China, the legal system has what Gao Mingyue, Didi’s lawyer, calls an “avoidance approach” to LGBTQ+ relationships. The nation’s civil code and marriage law presuppose children will be born to heterosexual, married couples and “does not clearly define the rights of same-sex couples.”
However, since China lifted its one-child policy in 2016 due to declining birth rates, courts are more inclined to uphold the rights of children born outside the conventional heterosexual framework. Acceptance for children of unmarried couples, as well as single and LGBTQ+ parents, is rising to levels not seen before in China.
As ‘LGBTQ Nation’ reports, four years after being deserted by her wife, Didi gained the right to monthly visits with her daughter, though not her son. Even without genetic ties to the children, the court prioritised Didi’s role in carrying and giving birth to her daughter.
In July, Didi journeyed from Shanghai to Beijing to see her now seven-year-old daughter. “I think maybe she still remembers me,” she expressed, noting that the separation was “heartbreaking.”
Although the occasion was bittersweet due to being unable to visit her son, her lawyer hailed the court ruling as a “big step forward.”
A recent survey by the Williams Institute at UCLA found that 85% of participants in China held favourable attitudes towards same-sex parents, and nearly 90% supported same-sex marriage.
This demonstrates, according to Didi’s lawyer, that “the law should catch up” with the progressive views of the Chinese public.
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