(JTA) — A Jewish same-sex couple has won their lawsuit against the U.S. government for denying citizenship to one of their twin sons.
The State Department was wrong to deny citizenship to 2-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks because U.S. law does not require a child to show a biological relationship with their parents if their parents were married at the time of their birth, District Judge John Walter ruled, The Associated Press reported.
Andrew Dvash-Banks, an American, and Elad Dvash-Banks, an Israeli, married in Canada in 2010. Their sons, Ethan and Aiden, were conceived with donor eggs and the sperm from both fathers, and were born from the same surrogate mother minutes apart in September 2016. Both fathers are listed as the parents on the birth certificates.
Shortly after the births, the fathers went to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto to apply for American citizenship for their sons. The officer there asked for “highly personal details” about the conception of the twins, leading the men to leave the consulate “shocked, humiliated, and hurt,” according to the lawsuit filed last year by Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrant rights organization, and the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell.
The men were forced to undergo DNA tests that proved that Elad Dvash-Banks, who is not American, is the father of Ethan and Andrew Dvash-Banks, who is American, is the father of Aiden.
Only Aiden was recognized as a citizen from birth. The couple sued to force the government to give the same status to his twin brother.
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