Father's Will Requires Gay Son To Marry A Woman In Order To Receive Inheritance

Father’s Will Requires Gay Son To Marry A Woman In Order To Receive Inheritance

Now this is some crazy ish….

The late Frank Mandelbaum stipulated in his will that none of his son Robert’s children would receive any inheritance if Robert “not be married to the child’s mother within six months of the child’s birth,” The New York Post reports.

A bit old-fashioned? Sure. Especially when you consider Robert Mendelbaum, a 47-year-old Manhattan Criminal Court judge, is gay.

Frank Mandelbaum, who founded the ID verification company Intelli-Check, died in 2007 at the age of 73.

After New York passed the Marriage Equality Act, Robert married Jonathan O’Donnell in August of 2011, shortly after the couple had a child, Cooper, via a surrogate mother.

And now Robert thinks 16-month-old Cooper deserves a share of the $180,000 trust reserved for Frank’s three grandkids.

He and O’Donnell are fighting in court to prove that Frank’s will is discriminatory, and in violation of state law.

“Requiring a gay man to marry a woman . . . to ensure his child’s bequest is tantamount to expecting him either to live in celibacy, or to engage in extramarital activity with another man, and is therefore contrary to public policy,” the couple’s attorney, Anne Bederka, wrote in court papers. “There is no doubt that what [Frank Mandelbaum] has sought to do is induce Robert to marry a woman.”

Do you think this father was within his rights to require this of his son since it’s ultimately his money? Or was he just down right wrong?

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