Same-sex parental rights case reaches top Mississippi court

PEARL, Miss. -- A lesbian couple who had a son through in-vitro fertilization and later divorced will argue over whether the woman who didn't give birth should have status as a legal parent.

The Mississippi Supreme Court will hear the case Wednesday on whether 44-year-old Chris Strickland should be listed as the legal parent of now-6-year-old Zayden Strickland.

A lower court judge ruled during the divorce that Strickland wasn't a parent. He said the anonymous sperm donor had paternal rights, and awarded full custody rights to Kimberly Day, who carried a child who bears Strickland's last name.

"Can Zayden have three parents? Both these ladies who are married to each other and the father? The court is of the opinion the answer is 'No,'" wrote Rankin County Chancery Court Judge John Grant . "The court finds two women cannot conceive a child together. The court does not find its opinion to be a discriminatory statement but a biological fact."

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