Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Village Voice News
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Letters
  • Global
  • Columns
    • Eye On Guyana
    • For Your Attention
    • Hindsight
    • Lincoln Lewis Speaks
    • In the village
    • Mind Your Business
    • Mark’s Take
    • Future Notes
    • Children & Youth
    • Bad & Bold
    • The Voice of Labour
    • Politics 101 with Dr. David Hinds
    • Talking Dollars & Making Sense
    • Jacobs On Agriculture
    • Book Review 
    • My Turn Guyana
    • The Herbal Section
    • ECHO
  • Education & Technology
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Letters
  • Global
  • Columns
    • Eye On Guyana
    • For Your Attention
    • Hindsight
    • Lincoln Lewis Speaks
    • In the village
    • Mind Your Business
    • Mark’s Take
    • Future Notes
    • Children & Youth
    • Bad & Bold
    • The Voice of Labour
    • Politics 101 with Dr. David Hinds
    • Talking Dollars & Making Sense
    • Jacobs On Agriculture
    • Book Review 
    • My Turn Guyana
    • The Herbal Section
    • ECHO
  • Education & Technology
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Village Voice News
No Result
View All Result
Home Global

US expands citizenship for children born abroad in win for same-sex couples

Staff Reporter by Staff Reporter
August 8, 2021
in Global
Mr Mize (right), Mr Gregg and their daughter Simone (JAMES MIZE)

Mr Mize (right), Mr Gregg and their daughter Simone (JAMES MIZE)

0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice.

BBC – The US says children born abroad using assisted reproductive technology can now qualify for citizenship, in a move seen as a win for same-sex couples.

To be eligible before, babies born overseas needed to be genetically related to the American parent.

READ ALSO

WHO: Guidance for national strategic planning for tuberculosis

Govt working to secure Monkeypox vaccines

Mr Mize (right), Mr Gregg and their daughter Simone (JAMES MIZE)

The change follows lawsuits from couples whose children were born using surrogates and other methods.

Experts estimate the new policy will affect hundreds of families living outside of the US.

Advertisement

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy, announced Thursday, means children of married couples where at least one parent is an American and one is related to the child, are eligible for citizenship and family benefits.

The agency’s director, Ur Jaddou, said this new interpretation of the law is meant to ensure “fair access and support for all families and their loved ones”.

There are likely hundreds of couples this decision will affect, though the exact figure is unclear, according to Aaron Morris, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Immigration Equality.

“In denying that their children were citizens, they were also disrespecting the marriage of the parents,” Mr Morris adds. “It was like a double injury to all these families.”

James Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg were one of those families. Their daughter, Simone, was born in the UK using a surrogate in 2018.

While Mr Mize and Mr Gregg are both US citizens, Simone was denied citizenship because she was genetically related to only Mr Gregg – who the government ruled had not physically been in the US long enough to pass on citizenship.

The US also did not recognise both fathers as Simone’s parents.

Mr Mize tells the BBC that the situation was “stressful and confusing”.

“There was really no end in sight,” he says. “We didn’t know if it was going to be a six-month situation, a year or three-year long situation, or a decade. We had no idea.”

Ultimately, a federal judge in Atlanta ruled that Simone was a citizen – but stopped short of striking down the government’s policy.

Mr Mize on Friday expressed a sense of relief. He expects that many couples who were reluctant to have a “stateless” child will be more open to assisted reproductive technology – like in-vitro fertilisation – while abroad.

“It’s not abstract. Real people are now able to move forward because of the policy change,” he says. “We literally feel there are families being created now, that otherwise wouldn’t have been, because of this.”

In May, a similar family policy reversal was announced by the US Department of State, which said the change considers the “realities of modern families” and advances in reproductive technologies since the regulations were enacted in 1952.



Support Village Voice News With a Donation of Your Choice



ShareTweetSendShareSend

Related Posts

Global

WHO: Guidance for national strategic planning for tuberculosis

by Staff Writer
August 16, 2022

GENEVA, Switzerland – A national strategic plan (NSP) for TB is a key document that guides national authorities and stakeholders...

Read more
Global

Govt working to secure Monkeypox vaccines

by Staff Writer
August 16, 2022

DPI- The Health Ministry is working with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to secure vaccines for the Monkeypox virus....

Read more
Global

Blinken Presses Congo Leaders to Slow Oil-and-Gas Push in Rainforests

by Staff Writer
August 13, 2022

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the country’s...

Read more
Next Post

Sheberghan: Taliban captures second Afghan provincial capital

POPULAR NEWS

No Content Available

EDITOR'S PICK

Guyana needs a Constitutional Court 

June 1, 2021

Govt to put spotlight on migrant workers as Guyana observes World Day against TIP

July 27, 2020

Agriculture sector being neglected; inquiry needed

March 20, 2022
Leader of the Opposition (ag) Roysdale Forde along with other Members of Parliament engaging residents of Rasville and Roxanne Burnham Gardens

CRIME, COVID AND COST OF LIVING  

September 12, 2021

© 2021 Village Voice | Developed by Ink Creative Agency

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Editorial
  • Letters
  • Global
  • Columns
    • Eye On Guyana
    • For Your Attention
    • Hindsight
    • Lincoln Lewis Speaks
    • In the village
    • Mind Your Business
    • Mark’s Take
    • Future Notes
    • Children & Youth
    • Bad & Bold
    • The Voice of Labour
    • Politics 101 with Dr. David Hinds
    • Talking Dollars & Making Sense
    • Jacobs On Agriculture
    • Book Review 
    • My Turn Guyana
    • The Herbal Section
    • ECHO
  • Education & Technology
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us

© 2021 Village Voice | Developed by Ink Creative Agency