FAMILIES
New York State Legalizes Gestational Surrogacy
Law gives queer, infertile couples new ways to build families without traveling elsewhere
BY MATT TRACY
A protracted battle over
the future of compensated
gestational surrogacy
in New York was
resolved on April 2 when state lawmakers
approved a budget that included
legislation proposed by out
gay Manhattan State Senator Brad
Hoylman and Westchester Assemblymember
Amy Paulin that legalizes
the practice once and for all.
Although New York was one of
just a small handful of states that
had yet to legalize the practice,
which entails a surrogate carrying
a baby who has no biological relation
to her, the campaign to pass
such legislation in the state was
stymied last year by concerns that
the surrogates who carry babies —
as well as those women donating
eggs — were not afforded suffi cient
protection and rights. The bill put
forth by Paulin and Hoylman, who
had his two daughters via surrogacy,
cleared the upper chamber last
year but never reached the Assembly
fl oor following resistance from
some women in the lower chamber,
including out lesbian Assemblymember
Deborah Glick, who
told The New York Times that gestational
surrogacy was “pregnancy
for a fee, and I fi nd that commodifi
cation of women troubling.”
Among other issues with last
year’s bill, Glick and others expressed
uneasiness about the
reality that most working people
could not afford to spend tens of
thousands of dollars to have children
through gestational surrogacy.
The bill primarily benefi ts
wealthier individuals in addition to
those who are looking for fi nancial
compensation by donating eggs or
carrying babies.
Hoylman, however, told Gay City
News in February that he hopes the
push towards universal healthcare DONNA ACETO
Out gay State Senator Brad Hoylman, who steered a surrogacy bill to passage, shares a smile with his
daughter Lucy, the younger of two daughters he and husband David Sigal have had through surrogacy. ➤ SURROGACY, continued on p.23
CIVIL RIGHTS
Idaho Bans Trans Girls’ Sports, Birth Certifi cate Changes
LGBTQ community under attack on multiple fronts; legal challenges anticipated
BY MATT TRACY
Idaho Republican Governor
Brad Little on March 30 unleashed
a broad attack on
transgender and non-binary
residents when he signed a pair of
unprecedented bills into law that
effectively banned trans girls and
women from playing sports and
barred individuals from changing
the gender marker on their birth
certifi cate.
The sports bill that cleared the
State Senate on March 16 states
that “athletic teams or sports designated
for females, women, or
girls shall not be open to students
of the male sex.” It includes shocking
provisions, including allowing
individuals to dispute the gender of
a student-athlete. Such a dispute
would then trigger a review process
that entails subjecting youth
to invasive testing to confi rm their
gender based on “internal and
external reproductive anatomy,”
their “normal endogenously produced
levels of testosterone,” or “an
analysis of the student’s genetic
makeup.”
An example of the deeply disturbing
worldview of some conservative
lawmakers in the state was
on display during earlier stages of
the legislation’s development when
Republicans tried to require that
all three testing options be deemed
necessary to confi rm a student’s
REUTERS/ KEVIN LAMARQUE
Idaho Republican Governor Brad Little at the White House with another “big discrimination guy” this
past December.
➤ IDAHO DISCRIMINATION, continued on p.23
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