evidence: Under State Department rules, it doesn’t matter whether a child’s parents are married or not. Both parents who are listed on the birth certificate will need to demonstrate consent for the child’s passport. Even if one parent holds sole custody, the other parent still has legal rights and needs to give their consent. Why? These stringent rules are in place to prevent international child abduction, and sadly, there have been cases of parents abducting their own children and taking them overseas to get them away from the other parent. [...] If a child does not legally have a father – meaning that only the mother is listed on the birth certificate, and the biological father did not file suit to claim his paternal rights – then the mother can take her child to a Passport Acceptance Facility on her own. Only the mother’s consent is required in this case. [...] The US State Department was actually ahead of the curve when it comes to accepting same sex couples. Several years before gay marriage was legalized across the United States by the Supreme Court, the State Department redesigned passport application Form DS-11 to change the words "Mother" and "Father" to "Parent 1" and "Parent 2." It doesn’t matter to the State Department whether a child has a mother and a father, two mothers, or two fathers – all that matters is that all legal parents give their approval for a passport to be issued to the minor child.