Dads Denied Name on Son's Birth Certificate

Louisiana wants local gay couple to pick child's official adopter

A San Diego gay couple is in federal appeals court Wednesday in the fight against Louisiana to allow both fathers’ names to appear on the birth certificate of their adopted child.

A full 16-judge panel on the Fifth District U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case of Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, who adopted a son in April 2006 in New York State.

Their child was born in late 2005 to a woman who lives in Shreveport, La.

Typically, the birth certificate of an adopted child bears the adopted parents’ names, but Louisiana is arguing that only one man’s name should go on the 5-year-old’s certificate in accordance to a state law that allows only married couples or single individuals to adopt.

Adar and Smith have already won rulings by a district judge and a three-judge panel.

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