Gay couple register child sans court order

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – An Argentine gay couple registered their child in Buenos Aires Tuesday, marking the first time a gay couple anywhere has registered a child without a court order, according to a gay rights NGO.

“It’s the first time in the world that a child was registered as the son of two men (…) without needing a court order,” head of The Argentine Federations of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders (LGBT), Maria Rachid, told AFP.

This also marks the first time two men have been registered as the co-parents of a child in Argentina.

Carlos Grinblat, 41, and Alejandro Dermgered, 35, were officially registered at the Buenos Aires Civil Registry Office as the co-parents their son, Tobias, a one-month-old born to a surrogate mother in India.

“We were fighting for one thing: to start a family,” Grinblat told the press, at the registry office.

“It’s a new step in the recognition of equal rights for everyone.”

Tobias is not the first child of two same-sex parents on Argentine records. On September 9, 2010, the first baby was registered as the child of two mothers.

Grinblat says the fight for gay rights saw a major step forward when President Cristina Kirchner signed a decree making Argentina the first Latin American country to recognize same-sex marriage on July 21, 2010, a week after Congress passed the law.

Rachid’s group has counted 5,839 gay marriages, as of July 12.

In May, the Argentine Congress passed a bill allowing transvestites and transgender people to choose how their sex is reported on legal documents. – Agence France-Presse