Lesbian Couple Sues Iowa Officials Over Birth Certificate 

By Advocate.com Editors

A lesbian couple is suing Iowa state officials for printing on their daughter’s birth certificate that she only has one parent and was born out of wedlock.

Heather Lynn Martin Gartner, 38, and Melissa McCoy Gartner, 39 filed suit against two state health department officials on behalf of their daughter Mackenzie, who was born in September, because her birth certificate only lists Heather as the mother.

The Iowa Department of Public Health rejected the couple’s request in March, according to the lawsuit, claiming Melissa had not legally adopted Mackenzie and was not biologically related.

Though same-sex marriage is legal in Iowa, birth certificate laws “expressly recognize the biological reality that women and men each play a distinct but equally necessary role in human reproduction and have corresponding rights, duties and obligations to their child,” according to the Department of Health letter cited in the lawsuit.