The purpose of adoption is often to give a home to a child who might otherwise be abandoned or left in state-run child care. Adoption also enriches the lives of the adoptive parents, bringing new life to couples who may not be able to have children. As anyDallas gay adoption rights attorney knows, the state of Texas requires that a birth certificate be signed by a man as the father, and by a woman as the mother, leaving same-sex couples who adopt with only one of them as the parent on the birth certificate.
This may be about to change. Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia has introduced a bill that would let both parents in a same-sex adoption put their names on supplemental birth certificates. The current requirement of one male and one female parent name on the birth certificate poses many problems for same-sex couples. For instance, the parent not listed on the birth certificate can be prevented from acting as a guardian when leaving the country on vacation. Additionally, having only one of the same-sex parents on the birth certificate can lead to challenges in obtaining Social Security cards and other government benefits for the child.
In the 2010 Census, 115,000 same-sex couple households reported having children. Approximately 84 percent of these households reported that the children are related to the householder, compared to 94 percent of opposite-sex married couples who reported having children. This discrepancy may be due to the fact that the children in same-sex couple households may have been the children of the same-sex partner. The bill introduced by Rep Anchia could potentially reduce the discrepancy by allowing both same-sex parents to be related, by birth certificate, to an adopted child.
Source: DallasVoice.com. “Rep. Anchia files that gay adoption bill that Sen. Carona said he would support,” John Wright, Nov. 15, 2012