An Arizona Fights for the Rights of All Fathers

Mike Espinoza’s life has become a stereotype. Like divorced fathers across the country, the Apache Junction flooring installer crams a life with his sons into every other weekend and a few weeks in the summer.

He’s furious about it and is trying to change it.

And while he hasn’t yet won more time with his own children, he has given Arizona fathers a better chance at equal parenting time. In the process, he’s become a role model to his 8- and 10-year-old sons.

Over the past three years, he has worked with state lawmakers, judges, lawyers, university researchers and activists to change Arizona divorce and custody laws.

In 2010, Espinoza successfully pushed to change Arizona law to state that, unless there is evidence of domestic violence or drug use, it is in the child’s best interest to have “substantial, frequent, meaningful and continuing parenting time with both parents.”

A law he helped pass this year, which goes into effect in January, further encourages joint parenting, including requiring the court to adopt a plan that “maximizes” both parents’ time with the child and forbids the court from giving one parent preference based on the parent’s or child’s gender.

“It’s equal,” Espinoza said. “A child deserves to have both parents.”