Three lesbian couples are fighting to have both parents’ names put on their children’s birth certificates.
Cathy Pareto and Karla Arguello, who were lead plaintiff’s in Florida’s marriage equality lawsuit, celebrated the birth of their twin son and daughter earlier this month. However, the hospital would not allow Pareto to put her name on the children’s birth certificates, despite Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage being declared unconstitutional nearly a year ago.
The other couples in the lawsuit are Debbie and Kari Chin of St. Petersburg and Yadira Arenas and Alma Vezquez of Winter Haven, and Equality Florida is also a plaintiff in the case. They’re represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Florida attorneys Mary Meeks and Elizabeth Schwartz.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi could have avoided yet another costly lawsuit by directing all state agencies to simply comply with the law. Instead she turned her back on repeated requests to take action,” said Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida, in a media release. “Birth certificates are the first official document that represent a new born baby’s family. Having an inaccurate birth certificate hinders parents’ ability to take care of their child and access important legal benefits and protections. Denying our families this is not only spiteful and harmful, it is illegal.”
Shannon Minter, NCLR’s legal director, says they’ve been asking the Bureau of Vital Statistics to comply with the law for months.
According to Equality Florida, inaccurate birth certificates cause a host of problems for children by hindering their parents’ ability to take care of needs such as obtaining healthcare, making medical decisions, signing up for daycare, and enrolling in government programs and benefits. The lawsuit simply asks the Bureau of Vital Statistics to list both parents on birth certificates when the parents are a married same-sex couple, just as they do when the parents are a married heterosexual couple.
