In a bid to forestall a backlash from congressional conservatives, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered the State Department to amend a bureaucratic change that would have eliminated the titles “mother” and “father” with the gender-neutral term “parent” in reports of overseas births.
The State Department said Saturday that Clinton had instructed the department to retain “mother” and “father” in a form known as a “Consular Report of Birth Abroad” that U.S. embassies use to document the birth of a child to expatriate Americans. It said the form will now ask for the names of the child’s “mother or parent 1″ and “father or parent 2.”
Gay and lesbian groups had applauded the initial change, which was announced with little fanfare in late December. But conservative groups criticized it as an attack on traditional marriage and family values.
Full Story from the Washington Post
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