PETITION: Amend Georgia's Grandparent Visitation Act
                                             Support "Sunnie's Yai-Yai Act" — Close the Loopholes. Protect the Children's Overall Best Interest.

Sunnie and her Yai-Yai on the merry go round at the park

Sunnie and her Yai-Yai Enjoying Sunrise on Mothers Day 2023
 
📌 PETITION TITLE
Amend Georgia's Grandparent Visitation Act — Pass "Sunnie's Yai-Yai Act"

To: Senator Kay Kirkpatrick, Georgia State Senate District 32 | Georgia General Assembly

 
✍️ PETITION 
Her name is Sunnie June Vanessa Harris. She was born on November 11, 2022, in Cobb County, Georgia. She is three years old. And for the last 26 months, she has not spent a single day, weekend, holiday, or birthday with her grand mommy — her "Yai-Yai."

This is not because her Yai-Yai stopped showing up. It's not because a judge ruled it wasn't in Sunnie's best interest. It's because a loophole in Georgia law made it legal to erase her grandmother entirely — and no court even had the chance to hear the case.

 
THIS IS HOW THE LOOPHOLE WORKS
Under O.C.G.A. § 19-7-3, Georgia's current Grandparent Visitation statute, a paternal grandmother can be legally stripped of the right to even petition for visitation if the biological father has never formally legitimized the child. It doesn't matter if that grandmother was present from day seven of that baby's life. It doesn't matter if she provided childcare, kept the child through illness, stocked the family's refrigerator when they had nothing to eat, and showed up at 5:00 in the morning when called. If the father — strategically, deliberately — chooses never to sign a legitimization document, yet even if that biological father's name is on that child's birth certificate, and that father acknowledges to be the father of that child, that grandmother has no legal standing under current Georgia law. That is the loophole being used against Sunnie's Yai-Yai today. Even Georgia's recently passed SB 245 (Act 186, 2025) does not address it.

 
SUNNIE'S YAI-YAI IS NOT ALONE
Grandparents across Georgia are being cut off from grandchildren they have loved and cared for — not because courts found it harmful to the child, but because parents have discovered they can use legal technicalities as weapons. Approximately 4 million grandparents in the United States are estimated to be experiencing estrangement or alienation from their grandchildren. This figure is based on polling indicating that roughly 6% of American adults are estranged from a grandchild, a number expected to rise as family estrangement becomes more common. The non-legitimization loophole is just one of several mechanisms being exploited. Others include: 

1. Using a good-faith CPS report filed out of genuine concern for a child's safety as justification to permanently sever grandparent access
2. Weaponizing custody arrangements to isolate grandparents without any judicial oversight
3. Exploiting the absence of any legal definition of grandparent alienation in Georgia statutes
   These are not hypothetical scenarios. They are happening right now — to real grandparents, and to the children who love them.

 
WHAT "SUNNIE'S YAI-YAI ACT" WOULD DO
This proposed amendment to O.C.G.A. § 19-7-3 contains five targeted, constitutional provisions:

1. Close the Non-Legitimization Loophole A grandparent with a documented, substantial caregiving relationship shall have legal standing to petition for visitation regardless of whether the biological father has legitimized the child. A father's deliberate refusal to legitimize cannot alone be used to dismiss a grandmother's petition.

2. Codify Grandparent Alienation in Georgia Law For the first time, Georgia law would define and recognize grandparent alienation — creating a rebuttable presumption that deliberate, retaliatory severance of an established grandparent-grandchild bond is not in the best interest of the child.

3. CPS Retaliation Protection Prohibit parents from using a grandparent's good-faith report to Child Protective Services as the sole basis for permanently severing the grandparent-grandchild relationship. A grandparent should never be punished for protecting a child.

4. Compensatory Visitation Remedies Empower courts to award a Compensatory Visitation Bank — crediting future visitation for documented periods of wrongful separation — as well as restoration of missed holidays, birthdays, and milestones. All remedies are child-centered. No financial penalties are assessed against parents exercising legitimate parental rights.

5. Constitutional Safeguards The Act is fully consistent with Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000). Parental rights are not removed. Courts must still find clear and convincing evidence that visitation serves the child's best interest. This Act adds tools — it does not override parental rights.

 
BREAKING THE SILENCE
For a long time, I carried this in shame. I was afraid — afraid that if the world knew what had happened, people would decide I must have deserved it. That there must have been a valid reason outside of the common child-parent conflict/disagreements. That a grandmother who truly deserved her grandchild would never have been kept from her. I stayed quiet after unsuccessful efforts to try to communicate this issue and even offered family mediation where every party involved of importance could be properly heard, moreso Sunnie's parents, because the communication broke down. I was afraid of losing my grand daughter. The bond we developed was too important to just walk away and let things be. I was left with no choice but to walk away and try to privately grieve without ruckus. And I believe — deeply — that silence was exactly what was intended. Shame is a powerful silencer. And it works.

But I am done being silent. Because the truth is this: I was an extraordinary grandmother to Sunnie June. I was present, I was loving, I was nurturing, I was sacrificial in my devotion to my grand angel, my son and Sunnie's mom. While the shame aligned with the silence the love for my grand angel remained and still managed to grow more even in her absence. I exist with her in my head. Imaginary visions of what she looks and sounds like have replaced the daily photos or video's that Sunnie's mom would send me via text. The holiday's in person are replaced with E-Wishes via social media hoping she will see them one day. The shame I was made to carry was never mine — it was a strategy. A way to ensure I would not fight back. A way to make the loophole work without resistance.

If you are a grandparent reading this in silence right now — ashamed, isolated, afraid of what people will think — I want you to know: I see you. This is for you too. You are not undeserving. You are not alone. And your silence is not evidence of your guilt. It is evidence of how effectively this system — and those who exploit it — can break a person down. I am breaking my silence so that you can break yours.

THE FACE BEHIND THIS PETITION
Sunnie's Yai-Yai held her granddaughter for the first time when Sunnie was seven days old on 11/17/2022. In that moment — on her son's birthday — Sunnie smiled, her eyes still closed. A grandmother's love was born that day.  In the 26 months since that love was deliberately severed, Sunnie's Yai-Yai has missed: 

1. Her second and third birthdays
2. Two Thanksgivings, two Christmases, two New Year's, two Easters
3. The first time Sunnie ran. The first complete sentence she spoke. The first time she recognized her own name in writing.
   No court order can give that time back. But the law can say: we see what was taken. And we will make sure no more is lost.

 
A MESSAGE FROM SUNNIE'S YAI-YAI
"I am not asking the courts to override anyone's parental rights. I am asking them to see my granddaughter — to see that she was loved, that she was held, that she smiled at seven days old in the arms of someone who would have moved heaven and earth for her. I stayed silent for too long, afraid the world would see me as undeserving. I now know that silence was the goal. I am breaking it — for Sunnie, and for every grandmother in this state who has been made to feel that their love wasn't enough. It was. It is. And the law should say so."

— Cherice Antoinette, Sunnie's Yai-Yai

 
🖊️ SIGN TODAY
Pre-filing target: November 2026 — the month Sunnie June Vanessa Harris turns four years old.