This week read about the Colorado Court of Appeals electing Eric Kuhn, and a new law to make it easier for LGBT people to become parents in Connecticut.
Colorado Court of Appeals Appoints LGBT Judge
When Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed W. Eric Kuhn to the Colorado Court of Appeals, he thought he was adding the only judge from the LGBT community, according to a statement from his office on Thursday.
The since-updated statement read, “With this announcement at the beginning of pride month, the diversity of the Court of Appeals is increased with the addition of their only LGBT judge.”
Kuhn, as the governor’s office corrected, will join Judge Anthony Navarro as the second LGBT judge on the court, leaving his role of senior assistant attorney general for the state’s health care unit.
Polis wrote, “Eric has been indispensable to the state since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing thoughtful and measured legal counsel on a wide variety of public health and constitutional issues. I am confident he will bring these same skills to the bench.”
In his new role on the state’s second-highest court, Kuhn will review decisions made by lower tribunals.
Connecticut Parenting Act Protects LGBT Families
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A newly signed law will make it easier for those who don’t share a biological connection with their child to establish parentage.
The Connecticut Parentage Act passed unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 141-1 in the House. The new updates to existing laws remove gendered titles from parentage law, clarify the rights of non-biological parents who use assisted reproduction, and allows non-biological parents to establish legal parentage without a second-parent adoption.
Yale Law professor Douglas NeJaime, one of the primary drafters of the bill, told NBC News that the gender-neutral acknowledgment of parentage “has the effect of having a judgment from a court, and all other states have to treat it as valid.”
Connecticut joins California, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont in enacting a parentage act that acknowledges same-sex and transgender couples. The law goes into effect January 1.
