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Child's Birth Certificate Has Lesbians Listed as "parents"

by Savitha C Muppala on Apr 23 2010 7:25 PM

A British lesbian couple will go down history as the nation's first to get the word "father" erased from the birth certificate of their child.

Natalie Woods, 38, gave birth to 7lb 8oz daughter Lily-May Betty Woods after paying 7,000 pounds for IVF treatment, and will be taking care of the baby with her partner Betty Knowles, 47.

They are the first to use a law change allowing same sex parents to sign a birth certificate as "mother and partner".

She will be known, as "Mummy" and they want Lily-May to refer to Knowles as "Mama B".

Woods, who works for a Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender counselling service, gave birth to Lily-May in a birthing pool at their Brighton home and they plan to have a second child.

Knowles has had four weeks "paternity" leave from her job as a van driver, and the two plan to marry in a civil partnership next year.

"It is fantastic, quite a milestone. It's also good that we don't have any of the worries and concerns of me being the only legal parent," the Daily Star quoted Woods as saying.

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Lily-May can find out her father's details when she turns 18, although her mum does not think of him as anything but a donor.

"We don't even think of him as a father. He's a donor, not a father," Woods said.

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"We explored the issue of not having a father figure for Lily-May in a counselling session and we've talked about how we will deal with it in the future.

"But there are more important things than having one father and one mother.

"Sadly, some people don't understand that. There have been a few homophobic comments here and there, and my parents do not have a part in my life because of my sexuality," she added.

Source-ANI
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