On June 2, the New York State Legislature passed bill A8382A/S9316 and sent it to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY). The legislation systematically removes the words “mother” and “father” from New York’s Family Court Act, domestic relations law, child support statutes, and education law. It replaces them with the clinical terms “gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent.” “Paternity” becomes “parentage,” and a “putative father” is now an “alleged parent.”

Supporters call it a modest technical update for same-sex couples, adoptive families, and surrogacy. They cite the 2021 Child-Parent Security Act, which already expanded legal parentage. But if this is mere administrative housekeeping, why erase the original words entirely? “Mother” and “father” already coexisted with gender-neutral definitions. This is not modernization — it is deliberate linguistic substitution.