[JURIST] The US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana [official website] on Thursday struck down [decision, PDF] the state’s parenthood statute for violating the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment [text]. Indiana Code Section 31-9-2-15, 31-9-2-16, and 31-14-7-1 provide that only birth mothers would be listed on a birth certificate, meaning that, where one lesbian partner undergoes artificial insemination, the other woman would not be granted parental status to the child. Under Indiana law, men whose wives are artificially inseminated are listed as the parent on the birth certificate, providing ample grounds for an equal protection argument. Against the state’s argument that the law is applied equally – men who are not the biological father of the child are not to be listed on the birth certificate – to men and women, the court held that “the State’s interest in protecting the best interests of the child when making determinations in the family law context,” were not satisfied under a heightened intermediate scrutiny examination. The state claimed that “preserving the rights of biological fathers and recording and maintaining accurate records regarding the biological parentage of children,” though the court found this argument unconvincing. The court also found that the State had interfered with a fundamental right of the women to “freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life.” The judge granted summary judgment on the matter and permanently enjoined the state from enforcing the laws in a way which would prevent presumption of parenthood granted to a same-sex, female spouse.

The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community (LGBT) continues to face legal challenges throughout the world. In November of last year a Utah judge reversed an order [JURIST report] denying foster rights to a same-sex couple. Earlier that month the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled [JURIST report] that same-sex couples can legally adopt. In June the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported [JURIST report] that members of the LGBT community continue to face discrimination and human rights abuses. Abuses toward the LGBT population are human rights abuses impacting society as a whole, said 12 UN agencies in a joint statement released [JURIST report] in September. The commission found that while LGBT rights have increased since the UN’s first study, there remains widespread discrimination and violence towards these individuals. Last November the OHCHR criticized a Singapore Supreme Court decision [JURIST reports] upholding a law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations between adult men. Last September the UN released a video calling for an end to LGBT discrimination [JURIST report] in all countries.