Public submissions on the Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill, which seeks to sort out a rare anomaly on the birth certificate of a young woman with two mothers, close at 5pm this Friday. The bill concerns Rowen Sullivan, a 20-year old from Upper Hutt. When one of Sullivan's mothers, Diane Sullivan, fell ill from terminal lung cancer, her other mother, Doreen Shields was not given the option to jointly adopt her, because she was an IVF baby born before a 2005 law change. Shields become Sullivan's guardian instead, and adopted Sullivan after Diane's death. The upshot is that only one of Sullivan's mothers is listed on her birth certificate, a situation the daughter seeks to change. Sullivan says she wants the change in order to honour both of her mothers, as well as to create equal ground for same-sex family rights. This bill was first introduced by Louisa Wall, the lesbian Labour party MP for Manurewa, on July 25 and had its first reading on the August 7th. It received enough votes in the house to be referred to the Government Administration Select Committee. The Select Committee will report back to Parliament by February 7th for the bill's second reading. Anyone who wants to make a public submission can do so online through the link below.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 24th September 2013 - 8:25pm