Isn't it terrifying that even a registrar doesn't know the law re. same-sex parents? (Guardian article)

[SarahAndQuack]

It's this story, from the Guardian, about two mums who were ridiculed by the registrar when they went to register their child's birth, because the registrar said you couldn't have two women on the certificate. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/15/same-sex-mother-will-not-have-to-adopt-daughter-to-be-recognised-as-parent-high-court-rules

I am not exactly shocked, but ... this is awful, isn't it?! When it's someone whose entire job has to do with knowing what the law is in this sort of situation.

Not a surprise sadly.

When we got married the registra thought we needed a deedpoll for a name change because it wasn’t a heterosexual marriage, this only came to light at the actual wedding. Luckily quickly solved by showing her the info on google.

A lot of local authorities are still a bit backward, we have our final adoption hearing next week, the forms that are the same country wide generally have applicant 1 and applicant 2, most forms specific to our daughters local authority only have intended mother and intended father.

Then there are some places where it is a case
of computer says no, I couldn’t register my son at my GP surgery as they would only register him at a mothers surgery and just could not comprehend that that was physically impossible because he doesn’t have one.

I hope all goes well for you next week.

I've had issues with the GP a bit like this ('unless you are her birth mother or her adoptive mother or a foster carer, you can't register her'). But then, I assume a GP receptionist is skilled and trained in lots of things and if they aren't so up to date on the law ... ok, not great, but I get it. But this stuff is literally what a registrar does?! How could you not know?!

Absolutely shocking! There's no excuse at all for such unkindness but also the lack of knowledge of their own job!! And that the registrar didn't look into it further and realise how mistaken he or she was!!

Hopefully when the child is a grown up, this will be a story they look back at and can say 'wow, it's just unthinkable to imagine how things were back then in the 2020's'.

Hopefully things change sooner than that obviously, but I hope we can look back one day in horror and disbelief at how people were treated.