GOP lawmakers push Hochul to veto bill to erase ‘mother,’ ‘father’ from parts of NYS law

It’s not Non-Gestating Parent’s Day!

Republican state lawmakers pushed Gov. Kathy Hochul to take a stand ahead of Father’s Day to veto a woke bill that would erase “mother” and “father” from child custody and parental laws.

Hochul’s fellow Democrats passed the gender-neutral measure that would replace “mother” with “gestating parent” and “father” with “non-gestating parent” or “parent” in family court and domestic and education law — and she’s signaled she’ll sign it into law.

But Republicans in the legislature’s minority said in a letter obtained by The Post that Hochul should stand up against the “virtue signaling.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office is defending a bill that would change the definition of “mother” and “father” in certain parts of Family Court Law in order to make it “more inclusive.” Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com

“To even consider replacing the term ‘father’ with ‘non-gestating parent’ diminishes the role that so many fathers play in their children’s lives,” said the letter, signed by state Sens. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R-Nassau County), Bill Weber (R-Rockland County) and Alexis Weik (R-Suffolk County).

“The first word out of a child’s mouth is often ‘mom’ or ‘dad,'” the senators told Hochul. “As a mother and grandmother, you should understand the unique and indispensable role mothers play in our families and communities.

“They are women who work and provide for their children, and they are the core of any family,” the senators added. “Relegating mothers to the term ‘gestating parent’ is extremely offensive and dehumanizing and serves no purpose beyond virtue signaling.”

Hochul’s office dismissed criticisms of the bill as “bulls–t,” even though some Democrats voted against the measure in the legislature.

“Mothers are mothers and fathers are fathers. No legislation changes that,” her office wrote in a post on X earlier this month. “As usual, Republicans are trying to hide from their disastrous policies by manufacturing bulls–t.”

GOP pols are calling on Hochul to veto the bill. Gorodenkoff – stock.adobe.com

She has until the end of the year to sign or veto the bill.

The bill’s sponsors, state Sen. Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx) and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) said the bill is necessary to clarify parts of Family Court Law dealing with surrogacy situations in cases of same-sex marriages, but critics have noted it could have been tweaked without fully erasing “father” and “mother” from the record.

“By adjusting language in the law, not only it is possible to make it more inclusive, but it also determines the utilization of a term which encompasses a broader concept of parental care – not one strictly related to ‘fatherhood,'” the Republicans said in the letter.

The bill would also rebrand proceedings to determine a biological dad from “paternity” to “parentage proceedings” while “putative fathers” aka deadbeat dads would now be “an alleged parent.”

The measure was rammed through Albany at the end of the legislative session in May with little discussion.