Married Moms: Government Must Recognize Our Son Is A US Citizen

WASHINGTON, DC — Nearly two and a half years after the landmark Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges legalized gay marriage across the country, a same-sex couple is suing the federal government for failing to recognize the legitimacy of their union.

Allison Blixt and her son Lucas Zaccari-Blixt are plaintiffs in a case filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. against the State Department. The lawsuit says the State Department is denying that her son is an American citizen, despite the fact that she is a U.S. citizen and is one of his mothers.

Lucas was born in London to Stefania Zaccari, Blixt's wife and an Italian citizen. The couple's other son, Massi, was born to Blixt in London and is recognized as a U.S. citizen, the couple says. Both children were conceived using the women's eggs and anonymous sperm donors, according to the lawsuit, and the women are listed as the parents of both children on their birth certificates.

Blixt said that when they brought Lucas to the State Department consulate to apply for his citizenship, they were initially treated well. Staff from the department commented on how cute Lucas was.

But then, she says, the tone shifted.

"She started asking questions like whose eggs were they, who carried him," Blixt said. She and Zaccari found these questions — which would not be asked of a straight couple — invasive. When the staff determined that Blixt was "not the genetic or gestational mother" of Lucas, the couple was told he would not be recognized as a citizen.

The mistake arose, according to the couple, because the State Department did not recognize the marriage of Blixt and Zaccari.

"They’re treating him as being born out of wedlock," Blixt said.

Immigration Equality, the legal advocacy group representing the family, said that this decision is the result of State Department policy, not law. Under immigration law, any married American citizen who has a baby abroad is guaranteed U.S. citizenship for their child.

The suit says that the policy of treating same-sex couples differently is an "unlawful, unconstitutional refusal to recognize the validity of Allison’s and Stefania’s marriage and, therefore, that a child born to them during that marriage is the offspring of that marriage."

The State Department tells Patch it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The department's policy says that children born using "Assisted Reproductive Technologies" must either be genetically related to a U.S. citizen father or mother, or have been gestated by a U.S. citizen mother. It notes that this is the department's "interpretation" of the relevant naturalization law.

However, the law does not seem to explicitly require such a provision. The law stipulates that a child born using assisted reproductive technologies will be deemed an American citizen if the gestational or genetic mother is a citizen and officially declared to be a parent at the time of birth. It does not say that this is necessary for the child to become a citizen.

The legislation also says that a child born to a U.S. citizen parent and a foreign national parent is eligible for citizenship. It is under this provision, Zaccari and Blixt believe, that they are entitled to have Lucas recognized as a U.S. Citizen.

The lawsuit notes that, because of their marriage, Zaccari and Blixt are free to live in the United States, because Blixt's citizenship allows her to obtain a family-based visa for her wife. However, their son Lucas does not have this option.

"The State Department’s decision to withhold from Lucas the same rights granted to his brother means that he will experience the indignity and stigma of unequal treatment imposed and endorsed by the U.S. government," the lawsuit says. "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."

Immigration Equality is bringing a separate case against the Department on behalf of a male same-sex couple in similar circumstances in Los Angeles.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images