A word change on Pennsylvania birth certificates may have been overlooked by parents in the joy and excitement of welcoming a baby into this world in recent months, but it sure is getting some attention now.
No longer does this legal document identify the child's mother as "mother" or his or her father as "father." Instead, they are now each identified as "parent."
It's a change made on birth certificates for babies born since August "to include all families and reflect the fact that same-sex marriage is the law of the land in Pennsylvania," said Gov. Tom Wolf's spokesman J.J. Abbott.
"Governor Wolf continues to support making government more respectful of all families and will continue to ensure state government treats all families with the dignity that they deserve."
The health department, the state's repository for vital records, says the law gives it the responsibility of designing the forms for vital records and spokeswoman April Hutcheson said, "it has fulfilled that obligation."
But House State Government Committee Chairman Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, along with 24 Republican colleagues, take a different view.
In a letter sent to Wolf on Thursday, they accuse the Wolf Administration of acting without legislative approval in making this change and therefore, is in violation of the law.
The law calls for "mother and father to be on the birth certificate, not parent and parent," Metcalfe said. "They are doing nobody any good by pushing their social agenda through changing birth certificates for all the many babies born since August. Every baby has a mother and a father. They don't have two parents that are not of the opposite sex."
Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, agrees the purpose of a birth certificate is to document "key realities at the time of a baby's birth," namely a time and date stamp, where the birth occurred and the name of "the mother and father physically responsible for the existence of the baby -- since every child comes from a male and a female. Original birth certificates should retain this record for historical and medical records purposes," he said.
But Molly Tack-Hooper, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania argues misgendering a child's same-sex parents on a birth certificate is a form of sex discrimination and unacceptable in her organization's eyes.
The ACLU began talking to health department officials about changing the wording on birth certificates since shortly after the May 20, 2014, court ruling that struck down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage. They said it was a cause of confusion for same-sex couples and demeaning as well. The organization worked with the department to develop guidance for hospitals on how to handle same-sex couples having a baby and followed it up with a FAQ.
While the ACLU didn't threaten a lawsuit as the lawmakers suggested in their letter is what prompted the department to make the word change, she said if the department took that from its conversations with her that would be understandable.
"A parent is accurate for every parent," Tack-Hooper said. "The fact that Representative Metcalfe would prefer everyone to be gendered does not mean that is how it should be. I am thrilled Pennsylvania is no longer misgendering parents and has brought their system into the 21st century."
Leanne Magee of Philadelphia recalls how stressful it was when she and her same-sex partner filled out paperwork as they were about leave the hospital with their newborn son, who is now 3-and-a-half years old. They crossed out "father" and wrote in "mother" beside it but that was not accepted by the hospital staff. She ended up leaving her partner's name listed as father.
"It's a total misrepresentation of the parenting relationship," Magee said. "It's such a physical and tangible reminder of how unequal we are despite the marriage equality ruling."
Now hearing of lawmakers' opposition to the new wording on birth certificates "seems like such a hateful place to dig in," Magee said. "It just seems interesting there would be legislators who prefer an inaccurate piece of legal documentation over something that's accurate."
While the health department told PennLive it cost $43,425 to make the change on the birth certificate form, Metcalfe, who hasn't yet received an official response to the letter that was sent to Wolf, said the department told him it spent millions of dollars on it.
That is money that he believes would have been better spent on dealing with the backlog of vital records requests, particularly at this time when people are trying to obtain the official raised seal birth certificate they need to obtain a real ID.
John Dawes of Equality PA, a civil rights group representing the state's LGBTQ community, said Metcalfe is making this about cost when he really favors "actively discriminating against and taking away rights of LGBT parents."
Metcalfe said his views about same-sex couples is not the issue here.
"I'm really a little discouraged when I hear people who advocate for the homosexual agenda would actually come out and support the governor taking an action that is not ultimately allowed under the statute," Metcalfe said. "I think every citizen ought to be offended when an elected official does not uphold and defend the constitution they've sworn to and does not operate within the confines of the law. That is the foundation of the argument against this."