Natalie spoke to the International Child Law Conference on 13 March 2026 about the current landscape for LGBT+ family creation. This annual conference, held in beautiful Jersey and organised by Corbett LeQuesne, is always a popular and respected family law event, attended by hundreds of solicitors and barristers from across the UK and Channel Islands.
The conference’s theme was on Modern Families, for the first time since 2013, and Natalie was delighted to speak about LGBT+ family building, immediately after the keynote speaker, the wonderful Mrs Justice Theis.
Noting that the political climate has shifted to a much less hopeful place, Natalie gave a stark warning about the risks to LGBT+ families, with transgender rights, surrogacy and same-sex parenting all under attack globally. In particular Natalie spoke about:
- the shifting political climate in the US and Europe in relation to LGBT+ rights,
- how globalisation and technology is impacting lesbian parents conceiving through sperm donation,
- the stalling of UK law reform on surrogacy, the global rise of anti-surrogacy movements, and what this means in practice for LGBT+ parents conceiving through surrogacy,
- the woeful lack of legal provision for transgender parents in the UK in light of the recent High Court judgment in FZ v MZ.
Natalie praised the Family Court for the essential creative work it has done over the past 20 years to safeguard the rights of children born into non-traditional families, and said its role will become ever more important going forward.
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