SOURCE:
HOTAIRURL:
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/25/citizenship-children-married-gay-couples-born-overseas/by John Sexton
This is a rather strange and depressing story that popped up in the Washington Post yesterday. It deals with an American woman named Allison Blixt who currently lives in London with her wife, Stefania Zaccari, and their two sons, Massi and Lucas, ages two and four respectively. When Lucas was born, Allison went to the American embassy to register his birth and obtain an American passport for him. She was shocked to discover that no passport would be issued because the people at the embassy told her that Lucas did not have birthright citizenship.
Stefania and I have lived in London since 2008, and we had our first son, Lucas, in January 2015. A few weeks after his birth, we bundled him up and took him to the American Embassy. I didn’t foresee any issues with reporting his birth and receiving his American passport. I’m a lawyer, and when I filled out the forms, the process seemed completely straightforward. According to the law, if a married American, who has spent the required amount of time in the United States, has a child overseas, that child is American. Simple.
When our family was called up to the counter, the interrogation began: So, who carried your son? Stefania, who is Italian, said she did. Whose eggs were they? Again, Stefania’s. I thought to myself, Are you joking? This line of questioning seemed irrelevant, invasive and offensive. This went on: Who was the donor? Where is the donor from? Then we were told to wait. We sat for a long time. Around us, other families — straight couples with babies in tow — came and went. Finally, an official informed us that Lucas would not receive American citizenship, because I am not his genetic or gestational mother.
You may be surprised to hear this, but I’m totally on this couple’s side. While I understand that there are still people who have issues with gay marriage, the current law is clear in this case. Allison and Stefania are legally married and Lucas is their child. The grounds being cited to deny Lucas citizenship seem rather shaky, but there are gray areas in the law (we’ll get to those in a moment) that could cause trouble for the couple. There was no issue with Massi’s citizenship as Allison gave birth to him.
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