From a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch piece on couple Maria and Joanni Hayman’s successful fight to have their names on children’s birth certificates:
[A]fter an 18-month game of wait-and-see as the issue of gay marriage was being settled in Virginia, Richmond Judge Designate T.J. Markow last month ordered the Office of Vital Records in the Virginia Department of Health to amend the birth certificates to show Maria and Joani as the “only parents of the children.”
The Haymans initially contemplated pursuing a custody order, or what their attorney, Colleen Quinn, says was called “LGBT two-parent protocol” in Virginia by lawyers familiar with same-sex couple cases.
Because of the unique nature of the twins’ birth, Quinn saw an opportunity to make a legal case for Joani’s inclusion on the birth certificates and offered to take on their case pro bono.
“I couldn’t bill them for something I wasn’t sure would be successful or not,” said Quinn, who has advocated for “family security and preservation” for same-sex couples.