A same-sex couple in Southern Africa has made international headlines and created the viral hashtag #BringPaulaAndMayaHome as they struggle to bring their children home to Namibia.
Philip Lühl is currently stuck in South Africa where he and his partner’s twin daughters, Maya and Paula, were recently born through a surrogate. Although Lühl and his partner’s names are both listed on the twin’s birth certificates, Namibia does not recognize same-sex marriage or adoption by same-sex couples as legimiate. Under this pretext, Namibian citizenship and the proper travel documentation is being denied to the couple’s young daughters.
In order to be granted Namibian citizenship, authorities are demanding genetic proof of Lühl’s biological relation to them. Lühl has stated he does not believe the same demands would be required of a heterosexual couple–particularly as it violates Article 14 of the nation’s constitution in which in which citizenship by descent is granted to adopted children.
Lühl has filed for emergency paperwork in order to bring his daughters home since March. But his attempts have been stopped by the country’s high courts. Meanwhile, Guillermo Delgado, the babies’ other father, is currently in the Namibian capital of Windhoek as he and Lühl two-year-old son wait for an August court date to determine whether Namibian citizenship will be granted to him as well.
Lühl has called Namibia’s declaration of his children as “stateless” an extension of state-sanctioned homophobia in a country where same-sex contact remains illegal. But even in countries with seemingly more accepting laws like the U.S., attempts to make the children of same-sex couples stateless can be spotted across homophobic legislations.
In a similar American case, one of the children of Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks was nearly denied U.S. citizenship. Each of the partners, one of whom was an American citizen and one of whom was Israeli, had one biological son. The biological son of the American father was granted citizenship while his brother was almost refused citizenship by the court. The Trump administration eventually lost that battle and both of the boys were granted citizenship. However, the seed for the future of homophobic leglistation was planted.
Lühl, a university lecturer, has been vocal on social media regarding he and his family’s battle, which has received much support from LGBT+ people worldwide under the hashtag #BringPaulaAndMayaHome. From physical to digital protests, the camaraderie amongst queer families can be felt internationally. The outcome of Paula and Maya’s cause could lay the groundwork for the separation or unification of same-sex families worldwide. An online petition has been started by the Namibia Equal Rights Movement and has received more than 5,000 signatures.
