In Brief

Staff Reports

IOWA Judge Orders New Birth Certificate Issued With Same-Sex Married Couple Names

DES MOINES -- A local Polk County Judge has ruled that the Iowa Department of Public Health must issue a new birth certificate in the names of a lesbian couple who are the parents of a now 2-year-old girl.

In a lawsuit brought by Melissa Gartner, 41, and Heather Gartner, 40, of Des Moines, they claimed that in 2009 the Iowa Department of Public Health refused to list both names of their names on the birth certificate as the legal parents of their daughter, Mackenzie.

Polk County District Judge Eliza Ovrom’s 12-page ruling stops short of declaring a constitutional right for same-sex parents to be named automatically on newborns’ birth certificates. But it faults state officials for failing to correctly interpret older Iowa laws in light of the April 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriages.

State administrators are bound by the 2009 case to interpret laws in a way that gives “full access to the institution of marriage,” Ovrom wrote.

“Pursuant to Varnum v. Brien, where a married woman gives birth to a baby conceived through use of an anonymous sperm donor, the Department of Public Health should place her same-sex spouse’s name on the child’s birth certificate without requiring the spouse to go through an adoption proceeding,” Ovrom concluded. “Petitioners have proven the Department’s actions are in violation of law and based on an erroneous interpretation of the law….”

Iowa law says that if a woman is married, the husband must be legally deemed the father unless there’s a court order that says otherwise. But state lawyers argued in the case that gender-specific parenting rights make it legally impossible to replace a “husband” with a same-sex “spouse.”

“If I had to summarize the department’s case in one sentence, it would be this: It is a biological impossibility for a woman to ever legally establish paternity of a child,” attorney Heather Adams argued at a hearing in November.

Ovrom’s ruling was based on provisions of Iowa law saying that an agency’s ruling can be legally reversed if it violates any provision of law or if it is based on an erroneous interpretation of a law “whose interpretation has not clearly been vested in the agency.”

She declined in light of those findings to rule on an argument that Iowa’s treatment of same-sex parents was unconstitutional. ~ The Des Moines Register

Conservative Magazine Sends Subscribers  E-Mail Blast With Anti-Gay Hate Group Fundraiser Missive

Eugene Delgaudio delivers petitions to Capitol Hill 2009

WASHINGTON -- The roughly 60,000 subscribers to the conservative Weekly Standard’s e-mail list Thursday received a blatant anti-gay fundraising message with the subject line, “Congress to mandate pro-homosexual education?”

According to the Weekly Standard’s website, the outlet has a circulation of over 60,000, and calls itself “the most quoted, clipped, and talked-about magazine in Washington and political circles.” The fundraising appeal and anti-gay message was from anti-gay activist Eugene Delgaudio focusing on the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which would bar discrimination against LGBT students in public schools. Delgaudio is titular head of the Falls Church, Virginia, based Public Advocate of the United States, which claims its mission is to, among other things, provide “vocal opposition to…the furtherance of so-called “Gay Rights,” and says hate crimes laws protecting LGBT people “singles out Christians or moral thinking people…for persecution.” Earlier this year, the organization gave its Family Advocate Award to Marcus Bachmann for his working in counseling “ex-gays.”

The email said “radical homosexuals” were pushing the Student Non-Discrimination Act(SNDA), as part of an attempt to “indoctrinate” children while creating a “new America based on sexual promiscuity.” It went on to call LGBT people “deviants.”

Among the e-mail’s contentions, is that the SNDA measure would, “ Require schools to teach appalling homosexual acts so “homosexual students” don’t feel “singled out” during already explicit sex-ed classes;” that it will, “In fact, it will set them up to ram through their entire perverted vision for a homosexual America; and adds, “Sexual deviants being held up as models of virtue? If that makes you as sick as it makes me, you simply must join me in this battle for America’s children”

“It is alarming to see a political media outlet push this hateful rhetoric and act as a platform for the fundraising efforts of such an extremist group,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Regardless of the alleged political bents of any news outlet, or any audiences, it is reprehensible and irresponsible for the Weekly Standard to partner with this fringe group. The Weekly Standard is now giving gravitas to outrageous lies about LGBT people. William Kristol should do the right thing – apologize and distance his publication from the hateful misinformation campaign of the so-called Public Advocate of the United States.”

The fundraising email calls SNDA the “Homosexual Classrooms Act” and says it is a means for equality advocates to advance “their entire perverted vision for a homosexual America.”

Read the E-Mail Here.

GOP Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum Booed After Comparing Marriage Equality To Polygamy.

Rick Santorum

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE -- According to the New York Times, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum engaged in an extended and sometimes testy exchange over same-sex marriage with a group of college students during a campaign appearance on Thursday.

Mr. Santorum was speaking at the College Convention 2012, a forum organized by New England College and open to students from all over the state, regardless of political party. 

One student started the conversation by asking Mr. Santorum — a fervent opponent of same-sex marriage — why he did not think that equality required allowing members of the same gender to marry.while answering a question about marriage equality, Santorum said: “If you’re not happy unless you’re married to five other people, is that O.K.?” The audience booed Santorum, who continued on saying: “What about three men?” According to the media report, audience members continued booing Santorum as he exited the event.

“Rick Santorum’s anti-gay hate is not going to perform well in New Hampshire. His reception there is indicative of just how poorly he will fare with mainstream voters as the primaries progress,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Rick Santorum’s views are out of step with the majority of Americans across demographics and faiths. He is basing his campaign off of bashing an entire community of his fellow Americans. That may serve him well with certain constituencies, but it’s something most Americans will not stand for.”

Santorum has a long track record of trying to score political points off of bashing LGBT people. In addition to speaking out against marriage equality on a regular basis, he also has criticized LGBT families and adoption, and called the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) a means of forcing “social policy into the military.” Last fall, Santorum told a gay soldier he would reinstate DADT because "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military."