Dems replace ‘mother’ with ‘gestating parent’ in latest woke rewrite of NY law

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Dems replace ‘mother’ with ‘gestating parent’ in latest woke rewrite of NY law

By Vaughn Golden, Carl Campanile, Matthew Fischetti and Natalie O'Neill, NY Post

Published June 3, 2026

A woke new bill erases the terms “mother” and “father” from state child custody and parental laws — a gender-neutral rewriting that’s expected to spark a flood of similarly clunky legislation.

“Mother” would be replaced with “gestating parent” while “father” becomes “non-gestating parent” or “parent” in family court along with in domestic and education law, under the legislation, passed this week by state Democrats.

“Paternity” proceedings to determine a child’s biological father would meanwhile become “parentage” cases, under the bill, which was rammed through the Assembly in March and of the Senate this week.

A “putative father” — also known as a deadbeat dad — would now be called “an alleged parent” in official state records, under the bill, which was sponsored by liberals Sen. Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx) and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) and will go to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk for approval.

“It’s woke culture run amok. It’s one-upmanship,” said state Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, a former longtime state Senate and Assembly staffer.

“It’s an example of how out of tune the New York legislature is. It’s an unnecessary and wasteful use of time,” Kassar said

He said the gender-neutral bill is likely to lead to a stampede of others, and called state lawmakers’ priorities backwards — considering they were almost two months late in passing a state budget.

“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,” he said.

“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 parent,’” Blakeman said in a statement. “The insanity ends when I’m Governor.”

Republicans who voted against the Democratic sponsored bill called it outrageous.

“At a time when New Yorkers are being crushed by utility bills, rising costs, and public safety concerns, Albany Democrats have decided one of their final priorities in the last days of session should be replacing mothers and fathers in state law,” said Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R-Nassau). “That is not what families are asking for. I am a mother and proud to be called ‘mother.’

“New Yorkers are proud to celebrate moms and dads, and they would rather we, as lawmakers, focus on the issues that actually matter,” she said.

Other members of the Democrat-dominated legislature rolled their eyes as they signed off on the unwieldy phrasing, as the legislative session comes to a close for the fiscal year.

“I have a word we can use for this, ‘unnecessary,’” one Democratic lawmaker told The Post.

Democrat infighting had delayed approval of the massive $268 billion state budget by nearly two months before it was passed last week.

Hochul, who proudly wears the moniker of New York’s “first mom governor,” dodged on saying whether she supported the gender-neutral rewrite.

“Well, I’m not familiar with what was introduced,” Hochul said at an unrelated event in Brooklyn Wednesday. “I’ll take a look at it. This has been my practice for five years.”

A memo accompanying the bill claims the change is necessary because it brings state law into line with generally accepted standards for how family courts handle surrogacy cases and ones with same-sex parents, including couples with two moms.

Adoption lawyers said Wednesday that use of the terms “mother” and “father” in family law is outdated given the growth in same sex couple adoptions and surrogacy contracts.

“You have adoptive parents who are of the same gender in New York. There are two male parents, two female parents,” said adoption lawyer Leslie Silver-Hoffman.

Sepulveda, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, defended his measure.

“The bill was needed to be consistent with current statute and case law,” he said.

US Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) blasted state politicians for the move, saying mothers are “the foundation of families and society” and not a “political construct.”

“At a time when New Yorkers are struggling with high taxes, rising costs, and public safety concerns, Albany Democrats are focused on redefining motherhood,” Tenney said. “This is yet another example of out-of-touch politicians prioritizing progressive ideology over the issues that actually matter to hardworking New Yorkers.”

“New Yorkers aren’t walking down the street with their hands on top of their heads and saying, `Oh my God! The law says mother and father,’” said Pirozzolo, who voted against the bill.

“You can say ‘mother and mother’ and ‘father and father’, if you want,” he added. “This bill is not a mother and father thing. It’s not a gay thing. It’s a stupidity thing.”

The measure is part of an ongoing gender neutral trend from Democrats in New York.

The governor previously approved a measure passed by the legislature in 2023 requiring all laws, rules, regulations or resolutions to include gender-neutral terms such as “they,” “them,” or “theirs” instead of men/males or women/female.

In 2018, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council approved a law allowing New Yorkers to select a third gender category on their birth certificates — a “non-binary” identity category known as “X”.