The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that member states must recognize LGBT+ parents and their children as one family, after Bulgarian authorities refused to give a birth certificate to the daughter of a same-sex couple.

The landmark decision, made on Tuesday, saw the European court declare that member states must all guarantee the same right, regardless of domestic policies, to guarantee the child’s freedom of movement across the bloc.

Bulgarian Kalina Ivanova and British Gibraltar-born Jane Jones launched the case after Bulgarian authorities wouldn’t grant a birth certificate to their daughter, who was born in Spain in 2019, as officials stated that a child cannot legally have two mothers.

Currently, same-sex marriages and partnerships are not recognized in Bulgaria, which further prevented Ivanova from getting Bulgarian citizenship for her daughter.

As neither of the mothers are Spanish, they couldn’t receive citizenship there and, under the British Nationality Act of 1981, UK citizenship can’t be transferred to a child born in Gibraltar. Concerned that their child could be left stateless, with no passport, citizenship, or other documentation, the parents filed a case with the CJEU to address the situation.

Upholding the rights of the LGBT+ couple and their family situation, the CJEU declared that depriving the child of her “right of free movement” because “her parents are of the same-sex” violates her “fundamental rights” guaranteed under EU legislation.

While accepting that nations can independently decide on “whether or not to allow marriage and parenthood” for same-sex couples, the court stated that this cannot result in a contravention of the rights the “child derives from EU law.”

Under the ruling, the CJEU ordered Bulgaria to issue the child a passport. The case cannot be appealed.

Welcoming the decision, lawyers representing the parents called it a “huge step for all LGBTQ families in Bulgaria and Europe.” The duo promised that they would launch further action to secure legal recognition in Bulgaria as the legal parents of the child.

“The judgment has brought long-awaited clarification that parenthood established in one EU Member State cannot be discarded by another, under the pretence of protecting the ‘national identity’,” Arpi Avetisyan, head of litigation at NGO ILGA-Europe, said in response to the ruling.

As globalist Courthousenews reports:

LUXEMBOURG (CN) — Bulgaria’s stance against gay marriage does not justify its denial of a birth certificate to a baby of Bulgarian descent, born in Spain to lesbian parents, the European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday.

Marking a win for so-called rainbow families, the bloc’s top court said member states are obligated to issue proper identity documents to ensure the right to live and work freely across the European Union.

The Balkan country refused in 2019 to issue a birth certificate for Sara, who was born in Spain, but who has one parent hailing from Bulgaria and the other from the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Bulgaria defines marriage as between one man and one woman and wouldn’t recognize Sara’s Spanish birth certificate, which lists her parents as two women — they are referred to by pseudonyms Kalina and Jane in the court records.

Spain doesn’t permit birthright citizenship, and the United Kingdom — and by extension Gibraltar — doesn’t allow parents to pass on citizenship to children born outside of British territory. This left the little girl, who just turned 2, stateless. Without travel documents, she’s cannot leave Spain.

The parents sued the Bulgarian authorities, and the Administrative Court of the City of Sofia referred the matter to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice, asking if the country could be forced to acknowledge the same-sex parents. Bulgaria demanded the couple list only the girl’s biological mother on the birth certificate and leave the other mother off. The couple refused, arguing they weren’t required to disclose this information.

Although marriage and citizenship requirements are decided by the bloc’s 27-member states, the court found that EU citizens are entitled to identity documents that allow them to move freely within the European Union. Sara has “the right to be registered immediately after birth, the right to a name and the right to acquire a nationality, without discrimination against the child in that regard, including discrimination on the basis of the sexual orientation of the child’s parents,” the 13-judge panel wrote.

“The decision of the court is fully in accordance with the principles on which the European Union has been built, and also with so far the practice of the Court, namely that all European citizens should be treated equally. Bulgaria is obliged to recognize Sarah’s legal relationship with her two mothers,” the couple’s lawyer, Denitsa Lubenova, said in a statement that uses an alternate spelling of the child’s name.

The decision echoed the legal reasoning of an April opinion by the court’s advocate general. Juliane Kokott wrote that Bulgaria’s refusal to issue the documents creates “serious obstacles to a family life.” The court has sided with LGBTQ complainants several times in recent years. In 2013, it ruled in a German case that same-sex partners were entitled to the same employment benefits as married couples. In 2018, the court found that the word “spouse” in legislation should be applied to both same and opposite-sex partners.

Human rights groups are celebrating the decision, which comes as some countries in Europe have backslid away from equal treatment for minorities. “We welcome the judgment of European Court that a child and its same-sex parents must be recognized as a family, the child should be issued a Bulgarian passport, and the family should have free movement in all Member States of the European Union,” the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said in a statement.

In July, the European Union filed a complaint with the court against Hungary and Poland, arguing that recent anti-LGBTQ legislation violated EU regulations. That case is still pending.

A trifecta of policies had conspired against baby Sara, with one country not recognizing birthright citizenship, another that insists on in-territory births, and a third that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.