Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/08/no-birth-certificates-allowed.html
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RepubliCons, conservatives, Teabaggers - and their neofascist foot-soldiers - are attempting “death by a thousand cuts” for the SCOTUS same-sex marriage rights decision.
They forget lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transpeople, queers/questioning folks have faced a lot worse - and we are not only surviving, we are thriving. We shall prevail because our cause is that of a just and equal world.
#LGBTQ
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Will they be issued retroactively to those born in the interim? There’s a lot of stuff you can’t do in America without a birth certificate, and the list gets longer as things like xenophobia and electioneering get worse.
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I don’t get why such a boring document gets to be so complicated here. I understand a need to reference biological parentage for a number of obvious reasons (child support being one that comes to mind) but if say the parents had used a surrogate whether or not they’re in a heterosexual relationship it should be easy to add a field for surrogates (sperm, egg, uterus/carrier, etc). The formal certificate given to the family (aka the parents) would just be the baby’s name plus the couple’s names. For detailed records (those at a hospital or county health department’s records) should include the surrogate data for medical considerations. Is this hard? Or am I too analytical about such things?
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Sigh. Are we still dealing with this?
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Well, you’re doing it wrong because you didn’t start with the premise of, “how can I use this process to reaffirm to my voters that I’m against the things they hate and fear the most - they gays, the Muslims, the liberals, the trans, etc.?”
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Nobody was born in the interim. If they were born, their birth certificates would say so.
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It would seem to me to be a relatively easy linguistic fix.
Birth certificate should read:
Name of Parent Giving Birth | Name of Parent(s) Not Giving Birth
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I don’t know how it works in most states, but here in California I was surprised to find out when my kids were born that we didn’t receive a birth certificate from the hospital, and had to go to the county registrars office later and pay a fee to get one. Weird to me that such a vital public record that everyone will need at some point isn’t automatically provided, and isn’t free. The Social Security cards came in the mail automatically.
On the plus side it’s easy to get as many copies of the birth certificate as you like, at any point in the future. There was a cute little certificate-looking thing that the hospital provided, but it wasn’t a legal birth certificate.
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If I traveled to certain US ally countries with my adopted children, and authorities there found out that the children’s birth certificates did not list my spouse and I as their biological parents, my children could be taken from me. have their parents taken from them.
If I am in certain US courtrooms and my adopted children’s birth certificates do not list my name as biological parent, I have fewer rights than other parents, which could lead to my children being taken from me. having their parents taken from them.
In both cases, if my children are of visibly different skin color (or have other distinguishing features such as epicanthic folds) a demand can be made for birth certificates as proof of parentage. If I cannot present a birth certificate and they look “different” from me my children can be taken from me can have their parents taken from them for that reason alone.
This information cannot be a part of any public record. The USA has a vocal and vehement anti-adoption lobby. Other countries are even worse. It is best for your children that they should not be detected and targeted by these people. Using the word people loosely.
The only people who can really be trusted with a child’s biological parent information are the parents and the child herself. In my state, medical and legal records related to adoption are sealed by judicial order, and new back-dated birth certificates are issued, to protect the children. It seems to work.
You just didn’t have the full picture, that’s all; so your analysis did not go deep enough. If someone wants to harm adopted children and their parents, messing with their birth certificates is one method. If someone doesn’t mind a little collateral damage, is willing to harm all adopted children as long as at least a couple of gay people are harmed in the process, then this is one path forward.
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This is already over, at least for now.
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Nothing wrong with saying what you mean!
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It sounds like there’s either confusion or disagreement on whether it’s a birth certificate or a parent certificate. Despite the name, your experience seems to suggest the document is more about who has legal guardianship of the child.
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Well that Arkansucks.
And if the person giving birth is not one of the parents (i.e. surrogacy), then what? Or if, later, legal parentage changes (i.e. adoption) the identity of the child’s sire and dam are useful, but they are no longer parents, so how do you fill in your form. The fact that assholes are trying to use these forms in their attacks on the QUILTBAG community does not mean that there’s no reason that the forms are complicated.
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I currently can’t fly, because my WA driver’s license is no longer valid under the new rules, and I can’t get a passport until I can get my hands on a copy of my birth certificate. Which the city of my birth does not let you do online, of course.
I have no idea how Mr. Bells managed to get a passport since as far as I know he didn’t have a copy of his until about 5 years ago. He was born in Guatemala City during the 1976 earthquake. They weren’t exactly concerned with paperwork.
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There might be a certain irony to this: Years from now, how many people born in Arkansas during this fiasco will wish that they had never been born there.
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“‘And who was born today?”
“Nobody, Hugh.”
“I meant in history, before they changed the water.”
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This needs to be challenged in the courts immediately. it’s a clear violation of the 14th amendment.
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Oh, that’s good news, at least.
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