When it comes to family, the only constant is change. Throughout one’s life, an individual’s family is always changing—people form unions, breakups occur, family members pass, and children are born. Likewise, the manner in which people choose to form families is ever changing. In the legal arena of family law, the courts are constantly faced with the changing landscape of families and relationships and are asking the question, “How do you define a family?”
The New Jersey courts have wrestled with this question over the years, and many questions arise when dealing with the families formed by members of the LGBTQ community. Same-sex couples and LGBTQ individuals often rely on the process of adoption or the use of assisted reproductive technology to form families, and these formation techniques often have legal consequences and implications. Other LGBTQ individuals and couples are forming families in less traditional ways, which creates unique and challenging issues for the courts to address.
