European Justice recognizes the rights of children of same-sex couples, even in countries without equal marriage
El Court of Justice of the European Union has recognized this Tuesday the right of children of same-sex couples to be recognized as such in all countries of the European Union, including in those Member States whose national legislation does not include the right to homosexual marriage or does not provide for a minor to have two parents of the same sex.
The case responds to that of a couple of women, married in Spain in 2018 and mothers also in Spain a year later, they faced the refusal of the authorities of Bulgaria, the country of one of them, to register both as parents of the minor, which prevented the processing of her birth certificate and Bulgarian identity document.
Same-sex relationships between men and women are legal in BulgariaBut same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples do not have the same rights as opposite-sex couples.
Free movement in the UE
The couple reported the case to a Sofia Court, who attended the European justice to clarify whether the refusal of the authorities to register the birth of a Bulgarian national, registered in another Member State and who has been accredited by a birth certificate that mentions two mothers, constitutes a violation of the Fundamental rights of the girl and violates her freedom to free movement in the UE as a European citizen.
In his sentence of this Tuesday, the Grand Chamber of the European Court establishes that member states are obliged to recognize any document issued for a minor in the member state in which he or she lives in order to exercise with any of their parents the right to move and reside freely in the territory of the UE. Thus, the ruling emphasizes, the Bulgarian authorities are obliged to issue an identity document or passport to the minor, born in Spain, but with Bulgarian nationality, stating your surname as it appears from the birth certificate issued by the Spanish authorities, regardless of whether a new birth certificate is issued.
EU citizen
It also indicates that the rights recognized to Europeans include the right to wear «a normal family life»Both in your host Member State and in the country of which you are a national when you travel to that territory, which means enjoying the presence of your family members by your side. Therefore, it adds the European justice, from the moment in which the Spanish authorities established a «link of filiation, biological or legal«, Between the youngest and her two mothers,«all Member States must recognize»To the two mothers as parents and their right to accompany her in the exercise of her rights, as a citizen of the UE.
Advances in LGTBIQ + rights
Katy Pallàs, President of FLG LGTBI Families, has ruled on the historic sentence: «We have the feeling that we have won this battle. The recognition of motherhood / fatherhood in countries with state homophobia is something that we had trouble imagining 10 years ago. We are pleased to see the strong position of the European court in favor of human rights. These actions are what build Europe«.
