US State Deptartment will recognize all children of same-sex couples

 

The U.S. State Department is ending a policy that denied citizenship to the children of many same-sex couples.

During Donald Trump’s Administration, the Department had been sued several times over the policy, which said that children born abroad to married same-sex couples in which one spouse is a U.S. citizen would be recognized as citizens at birth only if they had a genetic relationship to the citizen parent. 

This denied citizenship to many children born through assisted reproductive technology and treated same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex ones, who did not have to prove a biological relationship.

Now the State Department will recognize the birthright citizenship of children with “a genetic or gestational tie to at least one of their parents” in these couples, as long as they meet the other requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act.