AP reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee has rejected on a voice vote Sen. Joyce Elliott’s bill to give a same-sex couples the presumption of parentage on a birth certificate, the same as a heterosexual couples.

The Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit seeking this equal protection. Other states provide this simple equal protection. The presumption is given heterosexual couples in cases of artificial insemination or surrogate mothers.

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If the legislature continues in its bias against same-sex couples, a federal lawsuit will be required. Following practice in many other states would be smarter, not to mention humane, but this is Arkansas.

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