Four married gay couples have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking to force Ohio to recognize same-sex marriages on birth certificates.
The lawsuit was filed Monday by the same attorneys who won a federal court ruling in December that ordered Ohio to recognize gay marriage on death certificates. That ruling is being appealed. The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit include three lesbian couples living in the Cincinnati area who were recently married in states that have legalized gay marriage. One woman in each of those marriages is pregnant through artificial insemination, and their babies all are due to be born this summer in Cincinnati hospitals. The fourth couple lives in New York, where gay marriage is legal. They adopted a boy last year who was born in Ohio.