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Same-sex marriage in Iowa means new birth certificates; What happens in Washington State?
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With the state Supreme Court decision in Iowa legalizing same-sex marriage, new questions have arisen about other state documents, namely birth certificates. Traditional birth certificates list a "mother" and "father", but what if there are two moms or two dads? In Iowa currently, if a woman is married, state law requires the second parent to be listed as "father," regardless of the sex of the parent.
Polly Carver-Kimm, an Iowa Department of Public Health spokeswoman, told the Des Moines Register they haven't come up with a solution yet: "We have identified this as an issue, but we have not resolved it at this point."
When same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, many new parents were told to simply cross out the word "father" or "mother" and told to write in their names. This causes problems, however, when official documents are needed for things like passports- federal agencies do not accept documents that appear to be doctored. The issue has still not been completely resolved in Massachusetts, as some county agencies resist printing new forms to accomodate same-sex parents.
In Washington State, the issue is a bit different, as same-sex marriage is still not legal here. According to the Center for Health Statistics at the Washington State Department of Health, any case where the biological mother is not legally married, only the mother is listed. This is also the case for heterosexual couples- in order to list a father who is not married to the mother, a court order or paternity test is required as proof before his name is added to the birth certificate. In the case of a lesbian couple where one of the women is the biological mother, the mother's partner usually adopts the child, in which case both women would be listed as "parent". In the case of gay couples, both men would need to officially adopt the child, and each would be listed on the birth certificate as "parent."
Fortunately, Washington is far along on this issue. Should same-sex marriage be legalized in this state, it would probably resemble what happened in Connecticut. In that state, same-sex civil unions were already legal, and these issues had been addressed by the time same-sex marriage became legal. In Washington State, domestic partnership is legal, which would smooth the way for same-sex parents if same-sex became legal.
States that allow same-sex marriage are Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. States that allow civil unions but not same-sex marriage are Washington, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Source: Same-sex ruling means marriage, birth forms need updates
Center for Health Statistics at the Washington State Department of Health
Via: Strollerderby
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