A Honolulu couple said it took a lawsuit to force the state Department of Health to issue them a certified copy of their child's birth certificate after they left blank the lines asking for the baby's race and ethnicity.

But Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino insisted that parents have never been required to fill out race or ethnicity, and that the release of the certificate was held up only in case the parents mistakenly forgot to fill out the information.

O'ahu residents Adam and Katherine Gustafson received certified copies of their daughter Stella's birth certificate on Thursday.

The Gustafsons received a letter from the department dated Nov. 10 explaining they had not received their certificate because they had left blank the lines in the application asking for races of each parent, and whether either was of Spanish origin.

Stella was born Oct. 16 at Castle Medical Center. The Gustafsons said that after the department ignored their queries, they filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Nov. 30 asking that the state be forced to issue a birth certificate.

The state the next day sent the couple a letter stating they would be issued a birth certificate without any reference to her race or ethnicity.

Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said the Gustafsons were initially sent a form letter sent to all parents who don't fill out all the boxes on a birth certificate form. "The language (in the form letter) is being changed because of this misunderstanding," she said. DOH workers also erred in not getting back to the couple sooner, she said.

The letter said if the couple did not respond to the request for information, "we will enter 'Information not given' on the birth certificate." It does not make clear that the couple would actually be issued a copy of the certificate.

Adam Gustafson said the letter he received from the Health Department was clear that "if you don't give it, you don't get the certificate."

But Okubo said the same letter has been issued by the department for 10 years without anyone else interpreting it to mean they would be denied a certificate, Okubo said.

Fukino said other couples have asked to have race and ethnicity blank and been allowed to do so.

Those certificates are simply issued with "Information not given," Okubo said.

Hawai'i is one of the few states that does list race information on birth certificates, and does so largely because Native Hawaiians need to be identified as such to qualify for certain Hawaiians-only programs, she said. Affirmative action programs also ask for proof of ethnicity.

"We don't force anyone to put down any information," Okubo said.

Gustafson said he's grateful the letter is being changed. By virtue of changing the letter, the state is acknowledging there was a policy that required race and ethnicity be given, he said.

"The main thing is we want Stella to be able to define her own identify rather than be defined by the state on racial grounds which we don't believe have any scientific basis and which we think have historically been used to divide people rather than unite them," he said.