Gay Couple in Israel Wins Right to Have Names on Child’s Birth Certificate

A gay couple has won the right to have both their names on their child’s birth certificate, reports The Times of Israel.

Israel currently only allows one mother and one father to be listed on a person’s birth certificate, not normally allowing for exemptions for same-sex parents.

The gay couple argued this was not only discriminatory, but harmful to the child while needlessly complicating procedures that need a birth certificate.

Isreal’s Supreme Court agreed.

“The principle of the child’s welfare supports registering his full family unit and doesn’t permit making do with registering one of the parents on the birth certificate while excluding the other and undermining his right to parenthood, given the contrast in the treatment of a child adopted by a heterosexual couple, who is entitled to have both his adoptive parents registered on the birth certificate—a contrast that affects both the child and the parents,” Justice Neal Hendel wrote in the verdict.

“It’s inconceivable that both members of the couple are recognised as parents, but the certificate doesn’t reflect this.”

“We’re happy that the court reminded the Interior Ministry of something that should have been self-evident — that parents are parents, no matter their sex, sexual orientation or gender,” wrote the parents’ attorney’s in a statement.

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