Lesbian Couple Bring Lawsuit To Have Both Names On Childs Birth Certificate In Iowa

Oral arguments begin today in the case of two mothers who sued the state to list both names on their daughters’s birth certificate.

In a letter from the The Iowa Department of Public Health last year IDPH that state laws “expressly recognize the biological reality that women and men each play a distinct but equally necessary role in human reproduction and have corresponding rights, duties and obligations to their child.”

Heather Lynn Martin Gartner, and Melissa McCoy Gartner state the state’s decision to list only Melissa as a parent deprives their daughter, Mackenzie, of the protections and benefits of two legal parents being present from birth.

Camilla Taylor, an attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund cites that the  Iowa Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in 2009 guarantees constitutional rights to basic fairness and equal protection.