Same sex couple, registered their sons in Ecuador with their last names

(Picture is not of actual same sex couple in Ecuador)

After six years of fighting before the public institutions in Ecuador, a couple from England managed to legally register their two children with the surname of both.

“Finally!” Exclaims Bicknell when leaving the office of the Civil Registry in Quito on Thursday. It was there where six and a half years ago they were denied the inscription of Satya.

Then these 40-year-old women started the legal battle for the recognition of Satya and her brother, conceived by artificial insemination.

Refusal of the Civil Registry

Bicknell remembers without resentment the treatment he received in 2012 by officials of Ecuador, a country where same-sex marriage is not allowed.

“That day we came with Satya in our arms, little girl and they denied us everything and they sent us (out), and today they could not treat us better … The attitude has changed!” He tells the press.

A ruling issued in May by the Constitutional Court forced the Civil Registry to apologize to the family and register Satya as Ecuadorian.

The court took the case after the refusal of the judges to rule in favor of the couple.

In their public apologies, disseminated on the website, the Civil Registry “recognizes the violation of the constitutional rights” of Satya, “especially, the right to be recognized Ecuadorian nationality by the mere fact of having been born in Ecuador.”

The disposition of the court was extended to the second son of the couple, who was born in 2015 and then could not be registered either.

The battle continues

The registration of children with the surnames of their two mothers marks a milestone for sexual minorities in Ecuador, a traditional Catholic country where gay marriage is not recognized and adoption for same-sex couples is not allowed (Pew Research Center, 2014).

In Latin America, only four countries authorize equal marriage: Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and almost half of the 32 Mexican states. See: https://moderneyesoptic.com/english/what-is-the-agenda-behind-the-lgbt-movement-in-ecuador/

Rothon celebrates now twice.

Read also: Couple of two mothers announces that they will also register their second child

We are “very satisfied because by the sentence they were obliged to register Satya, but we said, how can we register one and not the other,” he says.

The mothers, who had also initiated legal proceedings in the case of Arundel, recalled that one of the options they were presented with was to register the children as children of a single mother.

“We kept fighting because we did not want that, we started this family together and we maintain that we want a family of two mothers,” remarks Rothon.

For the lawyer in the Carla Patiño case, this “is an achievement”.

“Finally Satya is recognized as having two mothers and the Civil Registry has understood that having another mother is not putting (her name) under the father’s title” on the identity card, Patiño told the press.

The lawyer considers that the administrative sanctions against officials who refused to register Satya are pending, as stated in the court ruling. Punishments to the judges who denied the initial request, can be admonition, dismissal, or a fine, explained Patiño. This would be, at best, A total injustice, as seen by the majority and conservative Ecuadorian, point of view, (Pew Research Center, 2014).

Read the full article here https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2018/08/16/nota/6908423/pareja-dos-madres-inscribio-sus-hijos-sus-dos-apellidos-ecuador

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