{"id":3233,"date":"2026-08-02T10:54:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:50:08","slug":"texas-court-reaffirms-the-fit-parent-presumption-in-custody-disputes-involving-non-legal-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-court-reaffirms-the-fit-parent-presumption-in-custody-disputes-involving-non-legal-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Court Reaffirms the Fit Parent Presumption in Custody Disputes Involving Non-Legal Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The legal recognition of same-sex marriage has expanded the ways families are formed, but it has not changed the legal requirements for establishing parentage under Texas law. When a child is born during a marriage, and only one spouse is recognized as the child&#8217;s legal parent, questions regarding conservatorship and possession can become especially complex if the marriage later ends.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/texas\/second-court-of-appeals\/2026\/02-26-00016-cv-0.html\">recent decision<\/a> from the Fort Worth Court of Appeals illustrates how Texas courts continue to distinguish between a person who has acted as a parent and one who is legally recognized as a parent: <em>In re M.S.<\/em>, No. 02-26-00016-CV (Tex. App.\u2014Fort Worth Mar. 27, 2026, orig. proceeding).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Dispute Centered on Parentage Rather Than Parenting<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-court-reaffirms-the-fit-parent-presumption-in-custody-disputes-involving-non-legal-parents\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Texas Court Reaffirms the Fit Parent Presumption in Custody Disputes Involving Non-Legal Parents\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The legal recognition of same-sex marriage has expanded the ways families are formed, but it has not changed the legal requirements for establishing parentage under Texas law. When a child is born during a marriage, and only one spouse is recognized as the child&#8217;s legal parent, questions regarding conservatorship and possession can become especially complex [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-child-custody"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Texas Court Reaffirms the Fit Parent Presumption in Custody Disputes Involving Non-Legal Parents &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; August 2, 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The legal recognition of same-sex marriage has expanded the ways families are formed, but it has not changed the legal requirements for establishing &#8212; August 2, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclure-lawgroup.com\/blog\/texas-court-reaffirms-the-fit-parent-presumption-in-custody-disputes-involving-non-legal-parents\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Texas Court Reaffirms the Fit Parent Presumption in Custody Disputes Involving Non-Legal Parents &#8212; Texas Divorce Attorney Blog &#8212; August 2, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The legal recognition of same-sex marriage has expanded the ways families are formed, but it has not changed the legal requirements for establishing &#8212; August 2, 2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Francesca Blackard\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Texas Court Reaffirms the Fit Parent Presumption in Custody Disputes Involving Non-Legal Parents &#8212; 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