A married homosexual couple inside the US says the government is unconstitutionally refusing to recognize their toddler daughter’s American citizenship because she was born to a surrogate mother in the UK.
Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg, who married in 2015, became dad and mom to daughter Simone in England in July 2018.
Both men are US citizens and are indexed as her mother and father on the birth certificates.
But while she got back to America together with her dads, Simone’s passport application was denied.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the couple argues that the USA State Department’s coverage treats married equal-intercourse couples as if their marriages do now not exist and treats them otherwise from married straight couples in violation of the law and the constitution.
Simone became born to a British surrogate the use of a donor egg and Jonathan’s sperm.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, says that because only one of the couple has a biological connection to their daughter, the State Department treats her as though she changed into born outdoor of marriage, triggering additional conditions for the recognition of her citizenship.
An infant born overseas to married US residents is robotically a US citizen as long as one figure has lived inside the US, the lawsuit says.
But there are extra necessities if the parents aren’t married or if the handiest one is a US citizen.
Although Jonathan is an identified US citizen, he was born and lived in England until shifting to the USA after marrying Derek.
The State Department ruled he did not meet its requirement of having lived on US soil for at least five years to transmit his infant’s citizenship rights.
Lawyers for the couple say the five-year residency requirement would now not have carried out if they were regarded as a married couple.
Derek changed into born and raised in Mississippi, even as Jonathan become born in London to an American mother and British father, and he becomes raised with twin citizenship.
The couple met in 2014 in New York, wherein Derek became dwelling and married a yr later in 2015. They moved to Georgia in 2017.
A near pal of Jonathan’s in England agreed to be their surrogate, and Derek stayed in England along with her for most of the pregnancy.
Jonathan joined them for the final five weeks, and each guy had been present for Simone’s delivery in July and back to the USA along with her in September.
Preparing to report their taxes in March, Derek went to get a Social Security Number for Simone to assert her dependence, he said in a smartphone interview.
The Social Security workplace team of workers informed him they wished a consular delivery abroad or a US passport for her. He might need to get that from the American embassy in London.
The couple introduced Simone to London in April, armed with their US passports, marriage certificates, and Simone’s birth certificates.
But they are saying that after the embassy team of workers realized each parent had been men, they started out asking invasive questions about how Simone become conceived and who the organic parent became.
After three hours of questions, the embassy body of workers stated Simone had become now not eligible for citizenship, Derek said.
Since she is the child of men and now not biologically associated with both, the State Department dealt with her as if she changed into born ‘out of wedlock, the lawsuit says.
Due to Gregg, the organic parent who hadn’t lived within the US for five years before Simone’s beginning, the State Department determined she is not a US citizen.
