This'd be good:
Posted on 07/22/2005 10:22:17 AM PDT by SmithL
BOSTON - The governor's office has instructed hospitals to cross out the word "father" on birth certificates for children of same-sex parents and substitute "second parent," angering municipal clerks.
Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Gov. Mitt Romney, said Thursday that the certificates are perfectly legal.
But municipal clerks, who register and store birth records, say the cross-outs could leave the documents open to challenges by passport agents, foreign governments and other officials.
"They should not have a birth certificate that has crosses on it," said Barnstable Town Clerk Linda E. Hutchenrider, a past president of the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association. "They should be allowed to have a birth certificate that really looks valid."
Hutchenrider sent a letter to Romney in October, asking him to formally revise the birth certificates for the children of same-sex couples.
In recent weeks, she discussed the issue with Department of Public Health officials, but Hutchenrider said she was told the forms cannot be changed without the governor's approval.
Fehrnstrom said the health department has been advising hospitals to alter the documents since last year and that the governor believes the hand-altered certificates are valid.
"As long as they're recorded, they're valid," he said.
Fehrnstrom also said the state Legislature must authorize any changes to the birth certificates.
In 2004, when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, there were 61 children born to married same-sex couples out of about 80,000 children born in the state, according to data from the Department of Public Health. This year, the number stood at 75 by the end of June.
"It doesn't matter if there's only one or 500," Hutchenrider said. "They all deserve to have proper birth records."
So birth parents who give their children up for adoption should be exposed? So adoptive parents should have to answer private questions whenever they want to register their child for school or get a passport? As Government Shirker said above, new birth certificates are issued after adoptions with the adoptive parents listed as the parents of the child. In my states, same sex couples who adopt (either through traditional adoption or one inseminated/one adopts) can request that their new birth certificate say parent and parent instead of mother and father.
To my knowledge the new equipment is strictly cosmetic; it does not actually function for reproductive purposes.
I think it has long been a goal of many women that men "experience" the "joy" of child birth. I am sure they will be pleased that these gay men have some how figured that out.
Usually perversion, but sometimes not. Children can be born intersexed with uhhh...'both sets' unfortunately. Sometimes the doctors choose which set to keep (ie one set is way underdeveloped), sometimes it is the parents' choice, and sometimes no choice is made right away - they wait until kid reaches puberty and it can be determined which way the poor kid swings.
I don't know or care what the proper PC terms are, I'm not sure which group includes what. But being born with both is not something I want to imagine for myself or my children. Pretty rotten...
As far as regular adoption, many birth parents who make the difficult choice to give their babies up do so with the belief that they will have privacy. Most of these babies were conceived in less than optimal circumstances- some in horrible circumstances (i.e. rape, incest), and their birth parents want to get on with their lives.
"Frankenbabies".
RE: the cross-outs could leave the documents open to challenges by passport agents, foreign governments and other officials.
Good. Then maybe gays will think twice about being parents.
Good point!
Ping.
This'd be good:
You are behind the times if you think that same sex couples who are men aren't having children. In California, they use an egg donor and a gestational surrogate, neither of whom have parental rights. In some cases -- eg. Michael Jackson -- the child has only one parent. He is listed on the original birth certificate as the "mother" -- I kid you not. (The law requires a mother's name to be provided.) Later, the state will amend the certificate by shifting this name to the space for "Father."
I was merely pointing out that men are still not giving birth.
Aren't birth certificates supposed to list the physical mother/father, and if the father isn't known (perhaps because a sperm bank was used) then list him as "Unknown?"
Yup, he just dead-ended himself. Unless he switches parties, then he can run for anything he wants.
OTOH, if someone told you to go **** yourself, you could.
After all, wouldn't that violate the establishment of religion clause? 8>)
Bingo. He does what is legally required of the chief executive, not necessarily what is desirable.
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