News :: Family

Court Won’t Hear Gay Dads’ Birth Certificate Case

Associated Press
Tuesday Oct 11, 2011
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The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a gay couple who want both of their names to appear on the Louisiana birth certificate of the child they adopted.

The court said Tuesday it won’t review a federal appeals court ruling against the adoptive parents. The appeals court ruled that the Louisiana registrar’s insistence that only one father’s name can go on the certificate does not violate the child’s right to equal protection under the law or deny legal recognition of the adoption by both men. The adoption occurred in New York, which allows same-sex couples to adopt.

Louisiana says its birth certificate policy reflects state law prohibiting adoption by unmarried couples, whether heterosexual or gay.

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Comments

  • Anonymous, 2011-10-12 10:54:10

    My partner and I were legally married and hyphenated our last names. Why didn’t these guys, or any committed partnership/marriage do this? Hetero couples get married and 99.999% of the time the bride changes her last name. Why the double standard for us? Granted taking your betrothed’s last name vice your own is typically not the male-centric practice, but why not seal your union with an updated form of the traditional symbol and at least hyphenate your two last names? I love sharing my husband’s last name and he does mine. For us it was a matter of deciding which name to put before the hyphen; in our case it just sounded better to have his last name go first followed by mine. All it takes is a trip to the courthouse to file a legal name change, some administrative hoops to jump through, a hearing before the judge, and a few more admin details. Well worth the effort to have and share the same last names.


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