Some much-needed good news: A two-mom couple has won their battle with the state of North Carolina and will now be able to put both their names on the birth certificates of their sons.
Former Chapel Hill residents Melissa and Meredith Weiss had been together for several years when they married in Canada in 2003. They had their sons via in vitro fertilization in 2006 and 2008, but because North Carolina did not recognize their marriage, its Department of Health and Human Services refused to issue birth certificates listing both parents’ names, even after the moms secured court orders recognizing them as the parents of their sons.
On October 14, 2014, four days after a U.S. District Court ordered marriage equality to begin in North Carolina, the Weiss’ requested new birth certificates listing both of them as their children’s parents. The request went unanswered for more than a year, according to Lambda Legal, which filed a lawsuit on their behalf in December 2015.
Today’s ruling means their children’s birth certificates can now be accurate and list both women as their parents.
The moms said in a statement, “We are both thrilled and relieved. We just want our children to have the same respect, protections and treatment that every other child born to married parents receives. Today, our family and other families like ours can move forward.”
This victory should not be taken to mean that birth certificates are more important than or a substitute for second-parent adoptions—they’re not. But in a state that has become a key battleground for transgender equality, any LGBTQ victory matters. As Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Beth Littrell said, “We hope that the state’s decision to bring an end to this lawsuit by agreeing to provide equal treatment for same-sex couples and their children is a harbinger of a new direction for resolving, and avoiding, anti-LGBT discrimination.”