Marriage equality has finally arrived in Texas. And with marriage equality, comes legal protections previously unavailable to same-sex couples and LGBT Texans. This is excellent news. Yet, marriage equality is still new to Texas and largely new to the rest of the country, thus there are many legal unknowns.
There are some basic things same-sex couples in Texas can and should do to protect their families. For instance, for same-sex couples with children, it is still extremely important for the non-birth parent to adopt in order to legally secure the parent-child relationship.
The below links outline legal measures for LGBT families in Texas to protect their families, whether married or not, including wills, trusts, living wills, powers of attorney, and adoption.
- LGBT Estate Planning (including Wills)
- Adoption (including second-parent adoption)
- Domestic Partnership Agreements
- Name Change