GAY PARENTS HAVE RIGHT TO BE LISTED ON BIRTH CERTIFICATES, SUPREME COURT RULES

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By Miriam Raftery

June 27, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – States must list married same-sex couples on children’s birth certificates, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.  The ruling in the case, Pavan v. Smith, extends marriage rights earlier granted by the high court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which found the U.S. Constitution protected marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. 

The case involved an Arkansas lesbian couple who had used an anonymous sperm donor to conceive a child, but Arkansas refused to list the biological mother’s partner, to whom she was legally married.

Lawyers for Arkansas argued that “parental rights flow from biology, not marriage.”

But Arkansas already allowed a husband who was not a biological parent to be listed on a birth certificate when his wife conceived through a sperm donor, making the state’s argument inconsistent and discriminatory against gay couples, the Supreme Court majority found.

Three conservative justices dissented:   Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Gorsuch wrote that “nothing in Obergefell indicates that birth registration regime based on biology” violates the 14th amendment to the Constitution.

The high court is slated to hear another case on gay rights next term, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Civil Rights Commission, which will determine whether or not states can require businesses open to the public to serve same-sex couples if a business owner objects on religious grounds.


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