The Democratic-controlled New York State Senate has passed a new legislation that replaces the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ with the gender-neutral designations ‘gestating parent’ and ‘non-gestating parent’.
Under the new law, which was passed by the Assembly in March and also adopted by the Senate this week, a mother would be called a ‘gestating parent,’ while a father would be referred to as a ‘non-gestating parent’.
The two terms were part of a series of new gender-neutral words approved by lawmakers, with the designation ‘paternity’ proceedings to determine a child’s biological father changed to ‘parentage’ cases.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Luis Sepulveda and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, also replaces the term ‘putative father’ also referred to as deadbeat father with ‘an alleged parent’.
Following the passage of the bill, it will head to the desk of New York Governor Kathy Hochul for final approval.
Meanwhile, Conservatives have criticised the legislation, calling it “woke culture” and a declaring war on the nuclear family by the Democrats.
“It’s woke culture run amok. It’s one-upmanship. It’s an example of how out of tune the New York legislature is. It’s an unnecessary and wasteful use of time,” state Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, a former longtime state Senate and Assembly staffer, said.
He added, “Imagine people who are considering moving to New York seeing this and saying, ‘Do I need this silliness?’ This is a really weird group of elected officials. It comes out of left field.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman stated, “Democrats led by Kathy Hochul have continued their declaration of war on New York families by canceling the loving terms of Mom and Dad and replacing them with ‘gestating and non-gestating parents. The insanity ends when I’m Governor.”
