Majority of European countries vote to recognize & honor LGBTQ+ parents

The European Union has voted to support parenthood, including same-sex parents, throughout the continent.

The European Certificate of Parenthood will recognize parenthood regardless of how a child is conceived or born or the type of family structure they have. It also provides for rights to education, healthcare, custody, and succession. 

Related: Whose egg is it anyway? What not to ask a queer parent.

When people wonder who my son is “related” to, it contradicts our family story.

The move honors the rights of same-sex parents across the EU regardless of the policies of individual countries as long as the child is born in a member country.

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Countries will be able to make their own laws regarding whether or not they will recognize some forms of parenthood, like surrogacy, but after a certificate is approved in one member country, it has to be honored in all of them. States would only be able to deny a parenthood certificate if it is “manifestly incompatible with public order” in specifically defined cases.

The European Certificate of Parenthood will not replace national documents, but it can be accessed online and available for citizens of all EU countries. Once issued, it must be honored.

“No child should be discriminated against because of who they belong to or how they were born. Currently, children can legally lose their parents when they enter another Member State. This is unacceptable,” Portuguese member of the European Parliament (MEP) Maria-Manuel Leitão-Marques said. “With this vote, we are getting closer to the goal of ensuring that if you are a parent in one Member State, you are a parent in all Member States.”

Over two million children would be safeguarded by the measure.

“This provision is necessary to safeguard the fundamental rights of minors regardless of the sexual orientation of their parents and regardless of how they were born,” Italian MEP Sabrina Pignedoli said. “Anyone who is a father or mother in one Member State will in fact be automatically recognized in all other Member States and will therefore be able to move freely with their children throughout Europe.

“Today, unfortunately, this is not the case in Hungary, Poland, or Bulgaria, countries that do not recognize parenthood established in another state in the cases of LGBT parents,” Pignedoli continued. “Even in Italy, as is known, there is strong discrimination and the judicial authority often has to intervene to re-establish the rights recognized abroad.”

In Italy, as in other conservative countries, anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ groups opposed the measure.

While the bill has passed the European Parliament, the measure now has to be passed unanimously by every country’s government.

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