Divorce Plunged in Kentucky. Equal Custody for Fathers Is a Big Reason Why.

The dads were not all right. It was 2017, and across Kentucky, divorced fathers were coming together against a common enemy: a custody system they felt favored their ex-wives. Although custody laws in Kentucky and elsewhere granted judges discretion to decide what split was in a child’s best interest, aggrieved fathers claimed that this typically meant relegating them to the role of every-other-weekend “Disneyland dads,” forced to cram two days of fun into what mothers had two weeks to create. “You become like ‘Uncle Dad’ instead of a parent,” said Rob Holdsworth, 53. In 2014, he reluctantly uprooted his life...