TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A bill that passed the Florida House and Senate unanimously, coined "The Good Dad Act" is now signed into law. The focus — father's rights.
Last month, the ABC Action News I-Team shared the story of Ulysess Carwise, a Tampa father who has been fighting for custody of his now 5-year-old daughter, given up for adoption at birth by her mother without Carwise's knowledge or consent. His ongoing case highlights an often private battle unmarried fathers can face.
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“It just resonated to me the hurt from this father who lost his child due to a decision that was not his," Bernard Jennings told the I-Team after watching Carwise's story.
Jennings's own story prompted the legislation that will now impact unmarried fathers across the state.
“My son is eight years old now. I didn’t become his father legally until January 9 of this year," Jennings said. “At the time, I was a single father, unwed to the mother. We were in a relationship, we broke up, and I took care of my son primarily, most of the time, for seven years."
Then, Jennings said, his child's mother picked him up from school and moved him to another county.
“I went to the courts asking for help, I didn’t know where she was, all of a sudden friends didn’t know where she was, family didn’t know where she was, so I had to find my son," Jennings said.
Because he is not married to his son's mother, legally, Jennings had no parental rights.
“My name’s on the birth certificate. I’ve been a part of his life since birth, I was there at the birth, but because she decided that she was no longer going to cooperate with me, the law was not on my side anymore," Jennings said. “The judge said that I had to serve her a petition for parenting. And I didn’t know where she was to be able to serve her."
Jennings said he was finally able to find out where she lived in order to get time in court to establish visitation rights.
His son's mother told the I-Team she has been the primary caretaker and that she and Jennings had talked about moving their son to another school. Their next court date is in October.
"I thought to myself that so many fathers go through this, and they don’t have the resources or don’t know people to assist them in the matter, they don’t have the money and they’re stuck," Jennings said.
That's when Jennings, who is President and CEO of the Biscayne Gardens Chamber of Commerce, wrote a proposal to lawmakers for a bill to address unwed father's rights. Democratic State Rep. Christopher Benjamin of Miami Gardens picked it up.
In a House Judiciary Committee meeting, the bill's final committee stop, Rep. Benjamin said, “What this bill does is it says to fathers who want to be fathers, who want to parent their children, that we see you. And you are more than just an ATM machine. It gives them the right that we have given married fathers their entire existence. It lets them parent until there’s a problem."
Before voting in support, Democratic State Rep. Kevin Chambliss of Miami said, “It’s about time that we realize the reality of the family makeup in American society and the fact that there are a lot of fathers who are not married, or no longer married to the mothers of their children, and they are still great fathers.”
The bill gives unmarried fathers who have proven they are the biological father the same rights and responsibilities the mother has.
"Both parents are the natural guardian of the child and both have the same rights and responsibilities as parents that a married parent would enjoy," Republican State Senator Clay Yarborough of Jacksonville said in a Senate session in April.
Yarborough sponsored the Senate bill.
“It’s just good common sense and we want dads to be involved in the life of their kids," Yarborough said, acknowledging the bill was a bipartisan effort.“The overall goal is we don’t want there to be any barriers or impediments to dads who would want to be involved in the lives of their sons or daughters, to have either extra legal hurdles they have to go through or try to figure out what could be an ambiguous system, legally, to go through.”
Jennings said he is now working to establish similar laws in other states.
“There are some men out there that are not doing what they’re supposed to do to be a father, but there are other men who really want to be a part of their child’s life, married or not, they want to take responsibility, they want to parent their child," Jennings said.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law last week and it will take effect on July 1.
