A lawsuit filed Monday in Cincinnati seeks a federal court order requiring Ohio to put the names of both people in same-sex marriages on the birth certificates of their children.
The plaintiffs include three lesbian couples who were married in other states where same-sex marriage is legal. All live in Greater Cincinnati. One of the women in each marriage is pregnant through artificial insemination. The babies will be born in Cincinnati hospitals in the next few months.
They are represented by attorney Al Gerhardstein.
"Last year the federal court ordered Ohio to end discrimination against married same-sex couples on death certificates,'' Gerhardstein said. "Today these moms and dads seek to end discrimination against married same-sex couples and their children on birth certificates."
The lawsuit also includes a gay couple living in New York and the adoption agency that helped them adopt a child born in Ohio. Gerhardstein says Ohio is forcing these two dads to choose and allow only one of their names to be listed on the amended birth certificate of their adopted child.
Gerhardstein says there will be a hearing on this lawsuit in federal court. The Ohio Department of Health, named in the lawsuit, says "it does not comment on pending litigation."
