In 2006, Oren Adar and Mickey Smith, a gay couple, legally adopted their Louisiana-born child in the state of New York, where a judge issued an adoption decree. When they attempted to get an accurate new birth certificate listing both fathers as parents, in part so Smith could add his son to his health insurance, Louisiana State Registrar Darlene Smith refused, telling him that Louisiana does not recognize adoption by unmarried parents and relying on a determination by the Louisiana attorney general that she did not have to respect an adoption from another state that Louisiana would not have granted under Louisiana law if the couple had lived and adopted there.
