birth certificate

Melissa Gartner, 41, and Heather Gartner, 39, sued the state when the Iowa Department of Public Health refused in 2009 to list both names on the birth certificate of their daughter, Mackenzie. Iowa District Judge Eliza Ovrom heard arguments in the case recently and will issue a written ruling at a later date. Camilla Taylor, the Gartners' lawyer, argued that the state lists married men on birth certificates, even when it's impossible for them to be the biological father. She also cited the Iowa Supreme Court case that struck down a same-sex marriage ban in 2009.

Heather Martin Gartner (39) and Melissa McCoy Gartner (40) of Des Moines are suing to have both their names included on their child's birth certificate. The couple said they believed that since they were married, both their names would be listed on the child's birth certificate.

Heather's given birth to two children via anonymous donor during the relationship. The Gartners did not adopt their most recent child, because they legally married in Polk County three months before the girl's birth.

This is the birth certificate that leaves the father off the official record for the first time in nearly 200 years. It shows only a mother and a ‘parent’ – also a woman – for newly-born Lily-May Betty Woods. The baby was born to 38-yearold Natalie Woods. The parent named on the form is Miss Woods’s partner, 47-year-old Betty Knowles.

A lesbian couple have become the first same-sex parents in Britain to jointly sign the birth certificate of their child. Natalie Woods and Betty Knowles countersigned the document after the birth of Lily-May Betty Woods. Lily-May was born after Woods from East Sussex became pregnant via a sperm donor.

From Telegraph.co.uk:

NOLA.com reports that Louisiana's Department of Vital Statistics can't be forced to provide a birth certificate listing two men as the parents of a Louisiana-born boy adopted by a gay couple in New York, a lawyer from the state attorney general's office said Wednesday before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

An April 6th post at Lesbilicious explores the U.K.'s new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. Milly Shaw spoke to three lesbian families to find out how it might affect them.

Fertility clinics must now take into account ‘the welfare of the child’ when providing treatment, rather than ‘the need for a father’. The new legislation is considered a major victory for gay rights.

The AP reports that Louisiana has 15 days to add the names of both fathers to the birth certificate of a boy born in Shreveport and adopted by a gay couple from out-of-state, a federal judge has ruled.

The state is asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey, and to halt the order in the meantime, state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said Thursday.