Dear Friend, 

I have big news. Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision that Ethan Dvash-Banks has been a U.S. citizen since birth. We have been fighting for this family for nearly three years and are overjoyed by this decision!

If you’ve been following our fight for LGBTQ families, you’ll remember that Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks, a married same-sex couple, had fraternal twin sons via surrogacy in Canada. But, the U.S. government treated their sons as if they were born out of wedlock, and only recognized one of the twins as a citizen. We first sued on behalf of the family in January 2018, and a year later a federal judge ruled in our favor. The government appealed the decision and on Friday, we won again! We are optimistic that this is the last time Andrew and Elad will have to worry about the government denying their son his rightful citizenship.

Gratefully yours,

Aaron C. Morris
Executive Director, Immigration Equality