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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah must now recognize a married lesbian couple as the legal parents of their daughter on a state-issued birth certificate.
A federal judge Wednesday barred the state from enforcing its assisted reproduction law, saying there's no legitimate reason to treat a woman in a same-sex marriage differently than a man in an opposite-sex marriage.
"I don't think it's a hard case," U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said in issuing a preliminary injunction against the law.
Benson said while the law worked when the state passed it, the climate has changed now that the U.S. Supreme Court has made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. His decision appears to be the first in the country on the assisted conception issue since the high court ruling.
Angie and Kami Roe sued the state Office of Vital Records and Statistics in April to be both be recognized as parents of their now 5-month-old daughter, Lucy, who Kami gave birth to using donated sperm.
"We just want to be treated like opposite-sex couples in respect to this situation," Angie Roe, 30, said after the hearing.
(The) state's telling me I'm a single parent to Lucy, yet I'm legally married to Angie in the eyes of the Supreme Court. It just doesn't make sense.
–Kami Roe
Kami Roe, 36, said the "state's telling me I'm a single parent to Lucy, yet I'm legally married to Angie in the eyes of the Supreme Court. It just doesn't make sense."
Under the state's assisted reproduction law, the husband of a woman who conceives with donated sperm is recognized as the child's legal parent. But because Angie is Kami's wife instead of her husband, the vital records office refused to recognize Angie as Lucy's parent, said ACLU LGBT Project attorney Joshua Block, who represented the couple.
The office told the Roes that they must go through an expensive and invasive stepparent adoption process to become Lucy's legal parents, Block said. They argue in the lawsuit that the office's refusal to recognize female spouses as parents violates their right to equal protection.
Block said there's no difference between a same-sex couple and a different-sex couple for the purposes of the assisted reproduction law and both should be treated the same.
"A married couple is a married couple is a married couple," he told the judge "That's what we're asking for here."
Utah Federal Solicitor Parker Douglas argued that the law should remain intact to make sure the state has accurate statistics based on genetic data for university and other research projects.
The judge said that this is an easy case and I think that's exactly right. Many other states have updated their practices on their own without having to be dragged into court kicking and screaming.
–Joshua Block, Roes' attorney
In addition, he said the law exists to ensure people go into parenthood knowingly and that parental obligations aren't foisted on someone who doesn't want them. Not only people who become parents have certainty but children when they get older would have the same legal record to go back to.
Benson's decision wasn't unexpected, Douglas said. "I think that the judge considered the argument and made the ruling he thought was correct," he said.
Douglas said he doesn't know whether the state would appeal.
Block said he doubts it. He said he expects the injunction to become permanent fairly quickly because Benson was so clear-cut in his decision.
"The judge said that this is an easy case and I think that's exactly right. Many other states have updated their practices on their own without having to be dragged into court kicking and screaming," he said.
The Roes said they don't know how soon they will be able to get their daughter's birth certificate. But they said they are happy to fight for the rights of their daughter and LGBT people.
"Hopefully, we're helping other people out there in the country that are possibly going to go through this same type of discrimination," Angie Roe said. "Hopefully, we'll be the case to remember for that."
