Courts throughout the US and across the globe have struggled to define parental rights for same-sex couples. Last month a Massachusetts court ruled that same-sex couples who marry and have a baby via artificial insemination are bound by the same child custody laws [JURIST report] as heterosexual couples. In January an Iowa court ordered that the Department of Public Health must include both names [JURIST report] of married same-sex parents on children's birth certificates, causing one expert to opine that the arguments made in the public debate surrounding the case demonstrate a break from the goals of the early gay rights movement and could be used to justify discrimination [JURIST op-ed] against other forms of non-traditional families. In October the US Supreme Court [official website] denied certiorari [JURIST report] in Adar v. Smith [backgrounder], in which a same-sex couple asked Louisiana to include both of their names on the birth certificate of their adopted child. That same month, a Canadian court granted legal rights to a non-biological father of a child—the ex-partner of the biological father—over the biological father in a child custody case.