Irish Court Gay Sperm Donor May See Son

The Irish supreme court ruled Thursday that a gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple may see his young son regularly, but in arriving at its decision, it reasoned that the two women were not a family unit under Irish law.

The ruling was unprecedented for Ireland, where a proposed law would give same-sex couples many marriage-like rights, not including recognition of parental rights, according to the Associated Press.

"The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the man was legally the child's father and that a lower court was wrong to identify the lesbian couple as a family," the AP reported. "It ordered the lesbians to give him visitation rights."