Same-sex parents fight Florida about names on birth certificates
Three same-sex couples are suing the state of Florida for not permitting its hospitals to include both parents on their children’s birth certificates.
Recently, Cathy Pareto and Karla Arguello- the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license following the SCOTUS decision- have brought legal charges against the state.
Ms Pareto spoke to WPTV, saying: “Karla and I made the decision to expand our family together.
“We went through the whole fertility process together.
“The whole thing has been a unified front as a married couple.
“To then be told I couldn’t be on my own children’s birth certificate?
“It was degrading.”
When their twins were born on 6 August, the head of hospital records informed them that both parents could not be named on the birth certificates.
Outraged, Ms Pareto brought up the point that heterosexual parents who used sperm donors would not be presented with the same issue.
The couple, along with two others, point to the state’s Bureau of Vital Statistics as the cause of the problem.
Ms Pareto said: “Why are they questioning me because I’m not biologically tied?”
Florida’s Department of Health refused to comment, but were noted to have already inquired about a proper explanation on the certificate wording.
The CEO and co-founder of Equality Florida, Nadine Smith, weighed on the situation, saying: “Pretty much almost every other state has already done this. . .
“Florida’s going to waste time, waste money and leave parents who should be celebrating the birth of their child in uncertainty because both parents aren’t included on the birth certificate.”
