Gay Couple Takes Legal Action over Son’s Birth Certificate

A same-sex couple is seeking to force the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to issue a birth certificate listing both women as the parents of their baby boy.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Jessica and Casey Smith of Lawrence married in 2013 in California. Casey Smith gave birth Sept. 16 at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, which declined to list both women as parents on the birth certificate.

The couple filed an “emergency petition for the determination of parentage,” and a judge directed the state health department to issue a birth certificate listing both women as the child’s parents. But the department refused, saying it wasn’t notified of the women’s petition.

The women’s attorney filed a motion to join the department in seeking a legal decision on the issue.