Two women get married in Massachusetts; one of them legally takes her spouse’s name under state law; three years later, her application for a U.S. passport is rejected because the federal government won’t recognize the name change.
So Amanda Lison will have to go to Probate Court to get the name change recognized by the federal government, even though her married name appears on her driver’s license and Social Security card. (How’d it get on her Social Security card?)
“A spokesman from the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., said same-sex couples seeking a passport under a married name can’t do so absent additional documentation, and that the government doesn’t recognize such name changes based solely on marriage certificates, as it does for heterosexual married couples.”
There’s been lots of focus in the last few years on state-recognized same-sex marriage. People forget that there are about 1,138 federal rights that DOMA bars to gay couples, no matter how enlightened their own state might be.
We’ve got a long way to go.
Who signed DOMA into law again?
As a (former) lawyer who follows this kind of thing, I can’t believe you don’t understand the importance of the Federal restrictions. Allowing this woman to have a US passport with her legal name would have grave implications for the future of the human species. Everyone knows that only men and women can have children (see Hernandez v. Robles and also that children thrive in opposite-sex nuclear families (see Andersen v. King County). If the government starts issuing passports to married lesbians, it will be bad for the children. It’s that simple.
sorry, I left out the “)” after Robles
Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children!?!?!?!?
This kind of thing is what makes me scream and yell when people talk about federalism and leaving marriage up to the states.
I thought name changes were a state issue? At least, in Arizona it is. How many more days of the Bushit Administration do we have to endure?
Homer: Commenter #1 has a point. Clinton’s the one who signed DOMA into law.