{"id":259808,"date":"2026-06-08T22:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259808\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:54:14","slug":"long-island-town-boss-pledges-to-make-mother-father-permanent-in-code-after-woke-nys-gestating-parent-rewrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259808\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island town boss pledges to make ‘mother,’ ‘father’ permanent in code after woke NYS ‘gestating parent’ rewrite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call him Daddy.<\/p>\n

A Long Island town politician is pushing a local law to permanently lock the words \u201cmother\u201d and \u201cfather\u201d into the town code \u2014 a response to a proposed gender-neutral rewriting<\/a> of parenting terms by lefty state lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Hempstead town Supervisor John Ferretti said his resolution, which is due to be voted on by the town board on Tuesday, was sparked after his 9-year-old daughter overheard him and his wife discussing the state bill to replace mom and dad with \u201cgestating\u201d and \u201cnon-gestating\u201d parents.<\/p>\n

Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti wants \u201cmother\u201d and \u201cfather\u201d to be official in the town code. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came into our bedroom, very, very upset, saying, \u2018Can I still call you daddy?’\u201d Ferretti, a Republican, told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody will ever change the fact that my children\u2019s mother is their mother,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody will ever change the fact that I am their father. Just words on a piece of paper won\u2019t change someone being a mother, someone being a father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferretti\u2019s proposal comes after state Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester]) and state Sen. Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx) introduced a bill that would change parenting terms in state parenting, child custody, family court and education law to make them gender neutral.<\/p>\n

In addition, \u201cpaternity\u201d cases would be rewritten as \u201cparentage\u201d proceedings, and deadbeat dads, currently identified as \u201cputative fathers\u201d on the books, would become \u201can alleged parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferretti said that\u2019s not gonna fly in his town if he can help it.<\/p>\n

A proposed state law would sake some parenting terms, including mother and father, gender neutral. NY Post Design<\/p>\n

State Sen. Louis Sepulveda [D-Bronx] co-sponsored the gender-neutral rewrite proposal pending in Albany. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the town of Hempstead, we will have moms, we will have dads, we will have parents, we will have mothers \u2014 and there\u2019s no option,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome have two mothers. Some have two fathers,\u201d he added. \u201cBut they have two mothers. They have two fathers \u2014 not two gestating parents or non-gestating parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

His proposal, if approved, would keep mother and father as the acceptable terms in the code.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the state bill, which passed in the Assembly in March and in the state Senate last week, is on Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>\u2018s desk waiting for final approval.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul would have to give the controversial gender-neutral state proposal final approval. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

Gordon Tepper, the governor\u2019s rep for Long Island, fired back at the criticism of the state bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor believes mothers are mothers and fathers are fathers, and no legislation changes that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe legislation, which we will review, appears to address technical legal issues related to surrogacy and parentage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone making bad-faith arguments is deliberately misleading New Yorkers for political gain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call him Daddy. A Long Island town politician is pushing a local law to permanently lock the words…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26690,28008,5130,776,57,9,11,10,49,17566,51,50,18571,58],"class_list":["post-259808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-gender-identity","tag-hempstead","tag-legislation","tag-long-island","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-assembly","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-new-york-state-senate","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}