AB 417

Summary

This bill recognizes same-sex marriage by making references in the statutes

to spouses gender neutral, with the intent of harmonizing the Wisconsin statutes

with the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584,

192 L.Ed.2d 609 (2015), which recognizes that same-sex couples have a fundamental

constitutional right to marriage. The bill also recognizes legal parentage for

same-sex couples under certain circumstances.

Same-sex marriage

This bill provides that marriage may be contracted between persons of the same

sex and confers the same rights and responsibilities on married persons of the same

sex that married persons of different sexes have under current law. The bill defines

“spouse" as a person who is legally married to another person of the same sex or a

different sex and replaces every reference to “husband" or “wife" in current law with

“spouse." The bill makes applicable to married persons of the same sex all provisions

under current law that apply to married persons of different sexes. These provisions

relate to such diverse areas of the law as income tax, marital property, inheritance

rights, divorce, child and spousal support, insurance coverage, family and spousal

recreational licenses, consent to conduct an autopsy, domestic abuse, and eligibility

for various types of benefits, such as retirement or death benefits and medical

assistance.

Same-sex parents

In addition to making statutory references to spouses gender neutral, the bill

specifies ways in which married couples of the same sex may be the legal parents of

a child and, with some exceptions, makes current references in the statutes to

“mother" and “father," and related terms, gender neutral.

Under current law, all of the following may adopt a child: a husband and wife

jointly, a husband or wife whose spouse is the parent of the child, and an unmarried

adult. Because the bill makes references in the statutes to spouses gender neutral,

same-sex spouses jointly may adopt a child and become the legal parents of the child,

and a same-sex spouse of a person who is the parent of a minor child may adopt the

child and become the legal parent of his or her spouse's child.

Under current law, if a woman is artificially inseminated under the supervision

of a physician with semen donated by a man who is not her husband and the husband

consents in writing to the artificial insemination of his wife, the husband is the

natural father of any child conceived. Under this bill, a same-sex spouse may also

consent to the artificial insemination of her spouse with donated semen and is the

natural parent of the child conceived. The artificial insemination is not required to

take place under the supervision of a physician, but, if it does not, the semen used

for the insemination must have been obtained from a sperm bank.

Under current law, there is a paternity presumption whereby a man is