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Loading ...Louisiana to appeal gay parent ruling
01.05.2009 8:21am EST
(New Orleans, Louisiana) The state of Louisiana is preparing to appeal a federal court ruling that both names of a gay couple must appear on the birth certificate of their adopted son.
Louisiana Health Secretary Alan Levine said that the court ordered the state to do more than what the US Constitution requires.“We will ask a federal court of appeals to correct that mistake,” Levine said.
Oren Adar and Mickey Smith adopted their Louisiana-born son in 2006 in a New York court, where a judge issued an adoption decree. When Smith attempted to get a new birth certificate for their child, in part so he could add his son to his health insurance, the office of Louisiana State Registrar Darlene Smith told him that Louisiana does not recognize adoption by unmarried parents and so could not issue it.
Lambda Legal filed suit on behalf of Adar and Smith in October, 2007, saying that the registrar was violating the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the US Constitution by refusing to recognize the New York adoption. The Constitution holds that judgments and orders issued by a court in one state are legally binding in other states as well.
The Louisiana attorney general disagreed, and advised the registrar that she did not have to honor an adoption from another state that would not have been granted under Louisiana law had the couple lived and adopted there.
In what was seen as a major victory for same-sex parents nationwide, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey in New Orleans ordered the state Office of Vital Records last month to put the names of both fathers on the amended birth certificate.
In his ruling, Zainey said failing to amend the birth certificate violated the US Constitution.
Adar, who now lives with Smith and their son in San Diego, said “As an adopted child myself, I understand the need to feel like you belong. I remember as a child wanting to see my own birth certificate and to see my parents listed because it gave me a sense of belonging, of identity and of dignity. I want our child to see Mickey’s name and my name as parents on his birth certificate.”
Lawyers for the health department, the attorney general’s office and the governor’s office are reviewing Zainey’s ruling. A spokesperson for the health department said the appeal would be filed later this month.
“It’s sad they’re going to make this poor child and his family wait longer than they’ve already waited,” said Lambda attorney Kenneth Upton who represented Adar and Smith.
Could this be one of those cases that end up paving the way against DOMA?
I am sure that Louisiana is acting from bias and I have no intent to defend them. But I wonder about the efficacy of changing birth certificates in the first place. Adoption papers establish the legal relationship of adopted parents and their adopted children. Shouldn’t birth certificates reflect the identity of the birth parent(s) of a child?
Jay, there are many problems with what you suggest. The birth certificate is one of the most common basic forms of ID we have in this country. It needs to reflect who the child is now, otherwise, you set up the child for a lifetime of drudging around paperwork just to establish his or her identity. Now I’d be in favor of maintaining all former birth certificates of someone to have available, which I’m not sure is happening right now, but until someone comes up with a streamlined, fully accepted form of ID like the birth certificate, it will always need to reflect the child’s current name and parentage. Also, think about the children coming from horrible situations of rape, incest, and abuse. Should they bear the burden of being required to present a document on demand that will forever label them as the child of a rapist, or someone who traumatised them so badly that they had to be taken out of their home and be raised by someone else?
As an adopted 60 year old, I’m not able to identify who my father was because my mother refused to give his name at my birth. In retrospect, because of medical advancements, this was a big mistake. It’s even bigger now that my birth mother is now 93 and has forgotten his name. So I’ll probably never know.
I believe that the original birth certificate should include the birth parent info, and the adoption papers include the names of all addoptive parents. If the adoption is a multi-step process, then each step should be documented. The child, as an adult, should have complete access to the entire paper trail.
A birth certificate should reflect the legal, not genetic, parents. Louisiana knows it will lose this suit. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on this issue in 2007. It clearly stated that adoption decrees must be recognized by all states. Adoption decrees, unlike marriage licenses, are judgements issued by a court.