Decatur, GA — A gay Decatur couple recently won a lawsuit filed against the U.S. State Department after officials denied citizenship for their daughter.

Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg are the parents of Simone Mize-Gregg. They will be joining the Decaturish Twitch Show on Sept. 2 to tell their story.

The show will start at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast here.

According to Lambda Legal, they had their daughter Simone via surrogacy in England in 2018, and both fathers are listed on her birth certificate.

“When they applied for recognition of her U.S. citizenship, the U.S. consulate in London rejected their application,” a press release from Lamda Legal says. “Because only one of Simone’s fathers has a biological connection to her, the State Department disregarded Jonathan and Derek’s marriage and treated Simone as though she was born out of wedlock, a classification which requires more stringent requirements for recognition of her citizenship.”

Mize said this happened in April 2019 and told Decaturish the State Department’s decision was based on “a questionable policy that doesn’t allow two men to have children born abroad and their citizenship be recognized.”

Lambda Legal and Immigration Equality sued the State Department on the couple’s behalf last year.

“Judge Michael Brown ordered the State Dept to recognize our daughter as a US citizen,” Mize said. “We are obviously very happy and relieved — the whole ordeal took a toll.”

The Decaturish Twitch Show generally broadcasts every Wednesday and Friday at 6 p.m.

Be sure to tune in to the show and if you want to ask questions, create an account and give us a follow on Twitch by clicking here. (To create an account, click the purple “sign up” button in the upper right-hand corner of the Twitch website.)

People interested in viewing past episodes should subscribe to the Decaturish Youtube channel. To see the Youtube channel, click here.

We’ll see you on Sept. 2 at 6 p.m.

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