A last-minute vote in Albany this month took New York one step closer to achieving the left\u2019s long-cherished goal: vaporizing the nuclear family.<\/p>\n
Does Gov. Kathy Hochul have enough spine to stop it?<\/p>\n
The bill, S.9316, will erase the words \u201cmother\u201d and \u201cfather\u201d<\/a> from key sections of state law \u2014 and replace them with the coldly clinical \u201cgestating parent\u201d and \u201cnon-gestating parent.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t modernization, but cultural vandalism dressed up as inclusivity.<\/p>\n True, \u201cmother\u201d and \u201cfather\u201d are not neutral terms.<\/p>\n Nor are they mere biological functions.\u00a0<\/p>\n They define roles based on biology, love, sacrifice, unique bonds and millennia of human experience.<\/p>\n That reality \u2014 a mother\u2019s pregnancy and nurturing; a father\u2019s paternity and providing \u2014 gives each parent irreplaceable significance in a child\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Reducing them to the legislature\u2019s hollow, sterile terms intentionally diminishes and demeans them.<\/p>\n Adoptive or step- mothers and fathers who provide vital love and stability, regardless of gestation, are equally denigrated by this insidious linguistic warping.<\/p>\n The majority claims they\u2019re aiming for legal neutrality, but their new terms are anything but neutral.<\/p>\n \u201cGestating parent\u201d reduces women to incubators, targeting and diminishing motherhood while pretending to elevate fairness.<\/p>\n \u201cNon-gestating parent\u201d similarly flattens fathers into a residual category \u2014<\/a> defined by inaction, it throttles their distinct contributions of strength, security and guidance.<\/p>\n This ideology-driven, objectifying language devalues the mothers and fathers <\/a>who work to build strong families that mold their children\u2019s emotional, educational and economic outcomes.<\/p>\n It undermines the foundational roles that for millennia have sustained stable societies.<\/p>\n It erodes the cultural and legal recognition that complementary parenting benefits kids most.<\/p>\n The damage extends beyond mere symbolism: S.9316 amends the Family Court Act, Domestic Relations Law, Civil Practice Law and Rules, and sections of education law, systematically replacing \u201cmother\u201d with \u201cgestating parent,\u201d \u201cfather\u201d with \u201cnon-gestating parent,\u201d \u201cpaternity\u201d with \u201cparentage,\u201d and \u201cputative father\u201d with \u201calleged parent.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters claim that blurring these legal lines will change nothing of substance, but merely promote the ideal of \u201cinclusivity.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re either deluded or deceitful: The impact is real.<\/p>\n By injecting ideological language into the core machinery of family law, the legislature\u2019s edict will remove legal clarity rooted in biological and relational realities, and will alter how rights and responsibilities, from parentage to support, are framed in custody battles and other disputes.<\/p>\n All while alienating everyday New Yorkers by effectively proclaiming that, under state law, traditional family structures are suspect or outdated.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n That, in fact, is the point.<\/p>\n This bill is the logical result of a broader progressive drive to re-engineer language and reality at the expense of common sense \u2014 and to foster greater dependency on government by eroding strong families.<\/p>\n Leftists in other states are making a similar push: Massachusetts<\/a>\u2019 Parentage Act, passed in 2024, erased references to \u201cmothers\u201d and \u201cfathers\u201d in its state laws, and Wisconsin<\/a>\u2019s governor tried but failed to change \u201cmother\u201d to \u201cinseminated person\u201d in certain parts of state law in 2025.<\/p>\n Mothers and fathers aren\u2019t problematic relics to be erased \u2014 t<\/a>hey remain the bedrock of a stable society.<\/p>\n They are needed. They are necessary.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, New York state faces real crises.<\/p>\n Corporations and residents are fleeing<\/a> because of high costs, driven by perhaps the highest tax burden<\/a> in the country, a failing education<\/a> system, poor public safety and a declining quality of life.<\/p>\n But instead of tackling these, Albany indulges in language tricks that abuse the very families paying the bills.<\/p>\n New Yorkers deserve better than an endless Sisyphean struggle against fees, regulations and ideological experiments.<\/p>\n And we certainly deserve better than legislators who vent their contempt for traditional family structures while letting the state\u2019s real problems fester.<\/p>\n Hochul now faces a choice: She can take a stand and veto this insult.<\/p>\n The bill passed both houses of the legislature by wide margins, but not quite enough to ensure a veto-proof majority.<\/p>\n