A gay, married Utah couple is asking the state\u2019s highest court to declare a portion of the state\u2019s surrogacy law unconstitutional. The current law denies gay men the right to have biological children through surrogacy with a specific requirement that the \u201cmother\u201d be medically unable to carry a child.<\/p>\n
Legal experts say that this is a novel case for Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think these are new arguments and there has yet to be a court [in] the country that has struck down a surrogacy law on the grounds that the discrimination is based on sexual orientation or gender,\u201d explained Professor Douglas NeJaime at Yale in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n Law Professor John Culhane of Widenar University focused on the legal hurdles the LGBTQ community continues to face in spite of the legalization of gay marriage in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cIf marriage equality really means what the Supreme Court said it does, then that should mean this gay married male couple should have the same entitlements as others,\u201d said Culhane.<\/p>\n Legal counsel for the couple argue that the current law violates due process. They also believe that gender-specific terms need to be removed wherever marital benefits are statutorily reference in the wake of Obergefell.<\/p>\n \u201cThe legislative objective was to afford the marital benefit for intended parents to have their own genetically related children not to improperly discriminate against married same-sex male couples,\u201d the couple\u2019s attorneys stated in the court documents.<\/p>\n The surrogacy law in Utah was created ten years before gay marriage became legal in the United States, and an amendment is needed in order to avoid unconstitutional discrimination.<\/p>\n After the courts denied the couple\u2019s petition to validate their surrogacy agreement, they were deeply hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cStraight couples don\u2019t experience this,\u201d the couple said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A gay, married Utah coupl [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,14],"tags":[198,266,250],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assisted-reproduction","category-lgbt","category-surrogacy-2","tag-same-sex-couples","tag-surrogacy-law","tag-utah"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t