LA Dads Sue Feds For Denying Citizenship To 1 Of Their Twins

LOS ANGELES, CA — Lawyers for a Los Angeles-based same-sex couple filed suit Monday against the federal government, alleging that the U.S. State Department is discriminating against them by denying birthright citizenship to one of their twin sons.

Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks contend in the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, that because one son was conceived with the genetic material of a U.S. citizen and the other son with the genetic material of his Israeli-born partner, one of the twins is being treated by the government as a U.S. citizen while the other was forced to enter the country on a tourist visa. The case is one of two brought against the government this week by same sex couples whose children were denied citizenship based on the theory that the child is not genetically linked to the parent who is a U.S. citizen. The other case was filed in Washington DC Monday by the mothers of twins, contending the government discriminated against them as same-sex parents by denying citizenship to one of the twins for the same reason.

Related: Married Moms: Government Must Recognize Our Son Is A US Citizen

The lawsuit brought on the LA couple's behalf by Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigrant rights organization, alleges that the State Department denied citizenship to the child because the boy did not have a biological connection to the parent with U.S. citizenship. The twins, Aidan and Ethan, were conceived through surrogacy in Canada, where the couple married and were living. The twins share an egg donor but one child has the DNA of Los Angeles native Andrew and the other the DNA of Israeli-born Elad.

Both fathers' names are on the birth certificates. The State Department has told Patch it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The department's policy says that children born using "Assisted Reproductive Technologies" must either be genetically related to a U.S. citizen father or mother, or have been gestated by a U.S. citizen mother. It notes that this is the department's "interpretation" of the relevant naturalization law.

However, the law does not seem to explicitly require such a provision. The law stipulates that a child born using assisted reproductive technologies will be deemed an American citizen if the gestational or genetic mother is a citizen and officially declared to be a parent at the time of birth. It does not say that this is necessary for the child to become a citizen.

"The State Department is refusing to acknowledge the citizenship of children whose parents are same-sex married couples," said Aaron C. Morris, executive director of New York-based Immigration Equality and the Dvash-Banks' attorney. "This policy is not only illegal, it is unconstitutional. This action by the State Department disenfranchises children born to bi-national same-sex parents and places an undue burden on their families."

City News Service; Patch Staffer Cody Fenwick contributed to this report. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images