Year in Review: LGBTQ+ Parentage Progress in 2025 and What Lies Ahead

Despite increasing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policies across the United States, 2025 saw several states pass parentage legislation that will help make LGBTQ+ families more secure. Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLAD Law, spoke with me about the progress and what might be in store for 2026.

First, let's recap: Hawaii, Illinois, and Oregon passed legislation this year to ensure equality and paths to legal parentage for LGBTQ+ families and those formed via assisted reproduction, including surrogacy. Although the specifics vary in each state, all of the legislation is based on the 2017 Uniform Parentage Act (UPA), a model law developed by the bipartisan Uniform Law Commission and adopted or adapted in whole or part by an increasing number of states.

One notable part of the new legislation is the extension of voluntary acknowledgments of parentage (VAPs) to LGBTQ+ parents. VAPs are simple, free forms that can be completed at the hospital immediately after a birth (or later) to establish legal parentage, and are the equivalent of a court order. All states are required by federal law to have such forms for different-sex couples; the legislation passed in 2025 means that as of January 1, 2026, 15 states will explicitly allow parents of any gender or marital status to access them: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

In Illinois, the legislation also includes provisions that will make it easier for nongestational LGBTQ+ parents to confirm their legal parentage via adoption, without intrusive requirements like home studies and background checks. Nevada, New Mexico, and Vermont also passed such confirmatory adoption legislation this year, making a total of 12 states with these streamlined procedures (joining California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia).

Crozier credits the success of this year's legislation to the many constituencies it touches. "This to me is never LGBTQ-only work at all. It never has been and never will be," she insisted. "Family law work is work for everyone. We want every child to have that security. We want every family to be respected and protected. I think the best work in states happens in that frame."

Looking ahead, Crozier predicts "positive work" in other states, which could include comprehensive UPA legislation as well as more targeted parentage reforms such as confirmatory adoptions or ensuring that two unmarried people can adopt a child. It could also encompass fertility healthcare coverage. "To me, it's the whole panoply of 'How do we make sure that people can build their families and protect their families?'" she explained.

"I think there's a lot of work happening," she said, but also warned, "I think, frankly, we're going to start seeing greater pushback." She points to the recently released plan from the conservative Heritage Foundation, "Restoring America's Promise," that builds upon their earlier Project 2025 to set goals for 2026. It includes the assertion, "Every child conceived deserves to be born to a married mother and father." That vision, Crozier said, "is obviously very exclusionary" and "not the vision of the American family that resonates in communities."

She added that she thinks extremists on the right will also push for legislation to mandate insurance coverage for "a pro-life, ideological, fertility healthcare that doesn't actually help people get pregnant" because it does not include treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF), which "is proven to help people build their families." Additionally, she thinks we may see attempts to create barriers to surrogacy, through obstacles such as background checks, criminal record checks, and educational checks, and even bans on surrogacy itself.

"They're really pulling up the old tropes that LGBTQ people shouldn't be parents," she explained, "and arguments that are not based in reality." All told, "It's going to be a tricky year ahead."

Nevertheless, she said, "I think many states feel like there's some bread-and-butter family law work that needs to be done to protect families and give them what they need to thrive." She anticipates continuing her work to support "any state that wants to make progress in protecting children and families, expanding fertility healthcare, or updating their adoption code," and partnering with the local community members and lawyers who are leading the way.

She cautions, however, that people should be aware of bills that might look positive on the surface but have dangerous nuances. "I think we're going to be ready for it, but it's going to take a lot of work between different movements," she asserted. That cross-movement work, however, is a strength she has seen in the wake of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision that rolled back abortion rights. "The people in the LGBTQ movement working on family law, like GLAD Law, are working very closely with people in the reproductive rights movement and the fertility healthcare movement," she said. "We all see the threats, we see the commonality, we see how people are trying to impose a vision on the United States and on our very families and we all want to work together on another vision. I think that's the good news."

"It's really about all children and families in our communities," she affirmed. "It's about our common humanity and about protecting what is most dear to us."

Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian (mombian.com), a two-time GLAAD Media Award-winning blog for LGBTQ+ parents, plus a searchable database of 1,900+ LGBTQ+ family books.