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Gay couple sues over birth certificate

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May 14, 2010

5/14/2010

"A same-sex couple married in Des Moines last year has filed a lawsuit against two state health department officials, after the department refused to name both women on their daughter's birth certificate.

"Heather Lynn Martin Gartner, 38, and Melissa McCoy Gartner, 39, filed the Polk County lawsuit last week on behalf of their second child, who was born in September.

"...About a dozen married same-sex Iowa couples have encountered similar problems with birth certificates, said Camilla Taylor, a Chicago attorney for the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, which helped file the lawsuit. Taylor, who helped argue the Varnum case, said the department's denial 'invites discrimination against those children' who are born to married gay and lesbian couples."

Read more on desmoinesregister.com

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