A lesbian couple have slammed the Australian government for not providing an option for same-sex parents on child passport applications.
Jessica Boyd, who is planning an overseas holiday this month with her partner Liz Williams and their five-month-old baby Grace, has called out the application process, labeling it a ‘joke’ as the form requests the details of a ‘mother’ and ‘father’.
The 34-year-old would like the government to make it a priority to update the form, by making it more inclusive of modern day household structures.
Jessica Boyd (pictured right) is planning an overseas holiday this month with her partner Liz (left)
The application (pictured) requires details of a mother and father, not same-sex parents
Ms Boyd said she was unsure how to fill out the form, given her daughter’s birth certificate lists her as ‘mother’ and her partner as ‘parent’, Yahoo 7 reported.
‘As a government institution, I am just baffled they don’t at the very least update the text on the online form to ‘Parent 1’ and ‘Parent 2′, or something like that, as that is so easy to do,’ Ms Boyd said.
‘It’s lazy homophobia. She acted like it wasn’t a big deal on the phone… It doesn’t seem like a big deal to them, because nobody has stood up and told them it’s offensive.’
She believes the lack of inclusion of same-sex couples is discriminatory to any family which does not include the ‘standard’ mother and father framework.
Ms Boyd is disappointed the form is yet to be updated now that same-sex marriage has been legalised in Australia.
She also questioned the inclusion of the phrase ‘maiden name’ – which she believes in outdated, and notes it fails to account for non-binary people who do not themselves as male or female.
The lesbian couple have slammed the Australian government for not providing an option for same-sex parents
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman acknowledged that the current passport application forms refer only to ‘mother’ and ‘father’.
‘DFAT is developing a new online application process with updated terminology to reflect the diversity of Australians with parental responsibility,’ the spokeswoman said.
With the new process, she said, parents will able to outline their own relationship to their children.
‘The new online application process will be available to families in Australia this year. In the meantime, DFAT encourages clients to cross out and over-write parental terms on the hard copy forms to reflect their actual circumstances.’
Ms Boyd would like the government to make it a priority to update the form now that same-sex marriage has been officially recognised as legal