Despite the fact that more women are putting off marriage and childbirth until later in life, U.S. fertility rates haven’t changed significantly over the past 20 years
The U.S. Supreme Court released decisions on DOMA and Prop 8 that will have a profound impact for many of our clients and on the lives of LGBT people
Same-sex marriage legislation passed in two more U.S. states recently
Uruguay became the second Latin American nation, following Argentina, to legalize same-sex marriage
The U.S. Supreme Court’s hearings on two crucial same-sex marriage cases this week has created a media frenzy and raised passions to fever pitch on both sides of the issue.
France became the second nation in one month to take the first steps toward marriage equality. The “Marriage for All” bill spearheaded by President François Hollande’s Socialist party also grants the same right to all married couples to adopt children.
Kansas Supreme Court ruled in Frazier v. Goudschaal that the two children born via sperm donation to a lesbian couple are the children of both women.
Most state statutes governing sperm donation do not require the state to assess the intent of the donor and recpipients: if the donor qualifies as a parent or potential support obligor under state law, the state can go after him.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced today it will consider the case of California’s Proposition 8, passed in 2008, which stripped California same-sex couples of the right to marry. A U.S. District Appeals Court earlier had struck down Prop 8 on the basis it was unconstitutional. Some LGBT advocates are disappointed with today’s announcement because, had the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, same-sex marriage would have resumed in California almost immediately. The Supreme Court will consider California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage, ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. appeals court, and the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Both ‘traditional surrogacy,’ in which one woman provides the egg and carries the child, and ‘gestational surrogacy,’ in which one woman provides the egg and, after it is fertilized, another woman carries the child, are illegal for all people in Michigan, gay or straight.
Tommy and I were so honored, with our two boys, to be featured in a new one-act play by Del Shores, The Assembly Line, a benefit for Family Equality Council. I thought about the play's wedding scene as I stayed up late watching the 2012 election results.
The U.S. Supreme Court returned from its summer break to face the largest number of LGBT equality cases it has ever faced in a single term. Three critical cases have the potential to make significant changes in how the government embraces the LGBT community.
As demonstrated by the state legislature’s commendable move to protect all parties in surrogacy arrangements by passing AB 1217, California non-traditional families are lucky. In contrast, in Salt Lake City, Utah, The New Normal, a new TV sitcom about a gay male couple who are becoming dads via surrogacy, is not even being allowed to air.
The Windsor case highlights one of the most onerous consequences of DOMA, which is the financial penalty same-sex couples incur via estate taxes and loss of Social Security benefits when one partner dies.
The number of gay couples forming families is on a steady rise from previous years. Gay and lesbian couples around the world are finding new hope creating families using ART methods.
The California Supreme Court held in May 2009 that the estimated 18,000 couples who married in California between that court’s marriage equality decision in May 2008 and Prop 8’s passage on November 4, 2008 remain validly married under California law.
Bill saying that the District would provide a road map for gay rights activists in other jurisdictions, including possibly Maryland.
If you have not requested an expedited birth certificate, it may take several weeks before your child’s birth certificate is available. Generally a written or online request is required for you to receive your child’s birth certificate, along with confirmation that you are an “authorized” person. You can order the certificate via an online service such as vitalchek.com or directly from the County Clerk or Recorder in the county where your baby was born. We strongly suggest you purchase multiple copies of your child’s birth certificate—particularly if you do not reside in the US or will need to request an amended birth certificate in future. The office will charge a per-copy fee.
Once the birth certificate worksheet is completed, the hospital birth clerk will send it to the vital records office in the county in which your child was born.
In the case of an expedited birth certificate request, ask the hospital birth clerk for the address of the local vital records office, where you will pick up the birth certificate in person. Call before you go to confirm the birth certificate is ready and available for you to pick up.
If you need an expedited birth certificate, as you might if you plan to take your baby home to another country, ask the hospital birth clerk to expedite the birth certificate request at this time. In most cases, you will receive the expedited birth certificate within a few days.
Following your baby’s birth, the hospital birth clerk will complete a birth certificate and birth registration worksheet.
Some states require that the birth registration documents include some information about the surrogate for public health and statistical purposes only, but such information will appear only on the confidential portion of the birth registration; however, the official birth certificate will not contain this information.
If your baby is born in a “pre-birth state,” where pre-birth orders of parentage are permitted for babies born via surrogacy, the birth clerk will use information from the pre-birth parentage judgment we obtain on your behalf. The parentage judgment will direct the registrar to allow you to name the child, as well as list you as the parent(s).
In states where pre-birth parentage orders are not allowed, the process is essentially the same except the birth clerk will eventually use information from the post-birth order we obtain on your behalf. In some instances, the birth clerk will need to send the birth registration to vital records before the post-birth order is obtained; and in these situations, the state’s Vital Records will enter the correct birth registration to show you as the legal parent(s).
