Same-sex couples suing US government for denying citizenship to their children

Complaints filed in Los Angeles and Washington DC claim the State Department's current policy 'disregards the dignity and sanctity of same-sex marriages'

Allison Dawn Blixt, an American citizen, with her Italian citizen wife, Stefania Zaccari, and their two sons — only one of whom is considered a US citizen, according to a lawsuit (Allison Hinman via Immigration Equality)

A pair of binational, same-sex couples are suing the US government for denying their children citizenship.

The lawsuits, filed by the advocacy organisation Immigration Equality, wade into a contested area of the law and turn on America’s fairly recent recognition of same-sex marriages. For years, the federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibited same-sex marriage and thus barred gay couples from deriving benefits like conferring immigration status.

That changed when the Supreme Court struck down the statute in 2013, and the two lawsuits test the consequences for same-sex couples whose love spans national borders. Complaints filed in Los Angeles and Washington, DC claim the State Department's current policy “disregards the dignity and sanctity of same-sex marriages”.

Both legal challenges involve same-sex binational couples — one partner an American citizen, one not — who married in other countries while their unions were still barred under American law and conceived children abroad after same-sex marriage became legal. The children those partnerships produced mirrored their parents' split status: one child deemed a US citizen, the other denied that recognition.

“The State Department is refusing to acknowledge the citizenship of children whose parents are same-sex married couples. This policy is not only illegal, it is unconstitutional,” Immigration Equality Executive Director Aaron Morris said in a statement. “This action by the State Department disenfranchises children born to bi-national same-sex parents and places an undue burden on their families”.

An Italian-American couple is raising two children, but only one — a son carried to term by his US citizen mother — is recognised as an American citizen, while his sibling carried by his Italian mother is not, a lawsuit alleges.

An Israeli-American couple is in a similar predicament. They had fraternal twins through surrogacy. One son conceived using the American father’s sperm is treated as a US citizen; his brother, conceived with his Israeli father’s sperm, is not, according to a lawsuit.

The siblings denied citizenship will, as a result, “experience the indignity and stigma of unequal treatment imposed and endorsed by the U.S. government”, the complaints allege.

“No governmental purpose could justify imposing these indignities on a child of a valid marriage or restricting a family’s freedom to live as a family—together,” they argue.

A State Department representative declined to comment on pending litigation.