Mississippi Judge Orders State To List Lesbian Mothers on Child's Birth Certificate

(ATLANTA, March 19, 2003)- A Mississippi judge today ordered the state to issue a birth certificate for a 5-year-old boy who was born in Mississippi and adopted by a lesbian couple from another state. Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund filed a lawsuit against the state in 2001 for refusing to issue a birth certificate listing the child’s two parents, leaving him without any legal documentation of his name, the names of his parents or the date and place of his birth

“This is a very significant victory,” said Greg Nevins, the staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s Atlanta-based Southern Regional Office who handled the case. “This child was punished because his parents are gay. A birth certificate is a basic and important document for every child, and today’s ruling means this young boy should finally have his.”

Cheri Goldstein and Holly Perdue took their son into their Vermont home when he was discharged from a Mississippi hospital, eight days after he was born. In April 2000, the adoption was finalized in Vermont and a request was made to have Mississippi amend the child’s birth certificate to include his adoptive parents’ names and his new name.

The Mississippi Board of Health repeatedly denied requests to reissue the certificate because the child’s parents are lesbians. In a lawsuit filed in state court, Lambda Legal argued that the state was in violation of its own law requiring officials to honor valid out-of-state adoptions and provide amended birth certificates. Lambda Legal also argued that the state’s actions violated the Mississippi Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.

Today’s ruling comes just a week after a New Jersey court ordered that state to list both lesbian mothers on the birth certificate of a child they intend to raise together. “All across the country -- from the Northeast to the Deep South -- courts are increasingly recognizing that children with gay parents are entitled to the same protections as every other child,” Nevins said. “Today’s ruling is an important milestone in this trend.”

Goldstein and Perdue live with their son and other adoptive children. The couple have been sought out by Vermont officials when special-needs children have needed adoptive homes.

Jackson attorney J. Cliff Johnson is Lambda’s cooperating attorney of the case.

Contact: Lisa Hardaway 212-809-8585 ext: 266 Pager 888-987-1971 or Greg Nevins 404-897-1880 ext: 30