More on the importance of the Virginia case I posted about earlier. Trey explains quite clearly why having both parents’ names on the birth certificate is essential for gay & lesbian parents.
It was interesting that the topic for our Mamas and Papas group this last weekend was traveling as gay parents. One of the issues that was brought up by our speaker (usually don’t have invited guests, this time we did) was that as gay and lesbian parents we should _always_ have originals of our children’s birth certificate, passport and adoption decree with us when traveling. When traveling within the US, straight parents usually don’t have to _prove_ their relationship, it is assumed. Even when going overseas, though they need the documentation, the assumption is that they are the legal parents.
With gay and lesbian parents, its a somewhat different story.…We’ve heard horror stories, thank goodness rare, of GLBT parents traveling with their kids, of the couple traveling in NC who had the police detain them for over a day (and take the child into custody) because they didn’t have their documentation with them that they were parents, of the couple that spent two days trying to get into Canada for a visit but the officials wouldn’t let them in.. even though they HAD documentation.. just not ‘perfect’ enough for them (not their names on birth certificate, even though they had the adoption decree), etc, etc.
That’s just the world we live in, folks. We’ve never had any problem either, though we usually have to tell airline employees, etc., that we’re a family and traveling together. Still, we know that almost anyone could give us a hard time if the chose to, and probably get away with it, if we don’t have documentation that we are Parker’s parents and he is our son.
What a world, huh?
