Same sex marriage is finally legal in Iowa, so what's next? Recognizing their right to parent as same sex partners.
Iowa
is debating whether to strike the traditional "Mother" and "Father"
listings on children's birth certificates so same sex couples can
simply be parents.
Currently, Iowa law states that the woman who gives birth to a
child is listed on the certificate as "mother." If she's married, the
law states her husband is to be listed as father. So what if a mother
is married . . . to another mother?
Other states have faced this battle - and nothing has been
rectified. Massachusetts parents still face the "mother" and "father"
lines on birth certificates, and town clerks have been told the "X" out
the inappropriate gender title rather than having official forms
printed up. Those parents say they've encountered trouble obtaining
passports and other official documents for their kids because the birth
certificates look doctored. Even parents who have more legal-looking
certificates - including same sex adoptive couples who both appear as
mother or father on their kids' birth certificates, encounter a hiccup
at the federal level. As one lesbian mom explained, "The feds don't
care if you're two moms or two dads, but the application still says
father and mother."
So it's a Pyrrhic victory; the feds OK the passport, but force a mom to become a dad or vice versa.
If Iowa can make this leap, it may well be as large a coup as the
passage of the same sex marriage act. Not only will gays and lesbians
be afforded the right to marry who they please but to finally name
their spouses as parents of their kids - without an adoption process
and without requiring a gendered title that does not fit.
Come on Iowa!
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