The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
A lesbian woman gets to keep visitation rights of a 6-year-old girl that she helped raise despite the legal protest of the child’s biological mother, the state Supreme Court ruled in an opinion issued Friday.
The women waging the legal battle were formerly in a lesbian relationship and had been joined in a Vermont civil union ceremony in 2000, shortly after the state began permitting them.
They separated in 2003 and their civil union was later dissolved, but Vermont courts subsequently granted some parental rights to the non-biological mother.
In the opinion issued Friday, the justices upheld a lower state court ruling that affirmed the custody order previously granted in Vermont courts.
The lower court ruling was based on federal law that gives jurisdiction in custody matters to courts in the state where the petitions were first filed – Vermont, in this instance.
On one side of the issue is Winchester resident Lisa Miller, the biological mother of 6-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins.
The girl was conceived through artificial insemination and born in 2002, the same year the women moved to Vermont.
Miller’s attorneys have argued that Vermont laws should not supersede Virginia’s.
“The court should have addressed the state constitutional amendment, which wasn’t passed until after the litigation began,” said Mathew Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, a conservative civil liberties group, said in reference to the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman that Virginia voters approved in 2006.
Staver, who is also dean of the law school at Lynchburg’s Liberty University, represents Miller.
Attorneys for Miller’s former partner, Vermont resident Janet Jenkins, praised the Supreme Court ruling.
“The simple fact is the federal statue says if you start a case in one state and get a result you don’t like, you can’t take your kid and run to another jurisdiction and get another bite at the apple,” said Joseph Price, a partner with the Washington, D.C.-based Arent Fox LLP law firm that represents Jenkins.
For more than four years, Miller and Jenkins have contested their custody claims in court.
The Virginia Court of Appeals later ordered the lower court to honor that order.
Jenkins’ is permitted visits with Isabella every other weekend, alternating between Virginia and Vermont, and extended stays a few times each year, according to Price.
Miller, a Christian who now rejects homosexuality, claims that the visitation arrangement is harmful to her daughter.
Her attorneys intend to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
Staver said he also plans to file a separate action in Virginia.
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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CB
CB, please educate us on the true nature of homosexuality, seeing how you are seemingly an expert in it..."Reasonable doesn't pass when we all know what the true nature of homosexuality is all about." Logcabin republican are you?
My thoughts - if you're not a member of said community, you don't know what you think you know. That would be like me saying I know what the true nature of heteros are - warmongering, supremicist bigots who are threatened by every little thing that challenges their feeble beliefs. Would my perceived nature of heteros be applicable to all heteros? Certainly not.
Just remember which group introduced sin into the world and damned the human race... and it wasn't Adam and Steve...
C.B.
I cringe thinking that someone as judgemental and bigoted as you feels he knows the "true meaning of homosexuality." If you are a father of a son/sons, I pray they are straight for I fear they would never be accepted by you. How very sad you are, C.B.
Why....
Continue this argument? Ignorance will always cower behind that which feeds it, in this case it is being fed by religion. Just accept it, equality under the law is coming for all and there is nothing that can stop it!!And remember, Jesu was a liberal too!
C.B.
"Common sense tells us that, biologically, it takes one man and one woman to make a real family and have children. Faux families that homosexuals are now delving into just make a difficult process even more difficult for selfish reasons."
C.B. there is enough scitentific facts that prove homosexuals make just as good parents as heterosexauls do. You might want to look into it. Heteroxesual people are are more likely to abuse a child than same sex couples. A child is no more likely to grown up gay in a same sex home, then they are in a hetero one. These happen to be medically founded facts. You don't know this couple and you do not know their desire to have a child was motivated by selfish needs. Homesexual couples fall in love, develop a relation ship just like heterosexual couples do. Look at the precentage of divorce in this county and then tell me heterosexual lifestly is as sound as you may want it to be.
Kate...
It is obvious that you did not read the title of my last post. I applied simply common sense of biology. Those that try to play around with the laws of nature are bound to be burned by it. Bigoted? I think not. Sensible? Absolutely. Not every alternate lifestyle can and should be recognized as normal especially when you apply the "reasonable" means test. Reasonable doesn't pass when we all know what the true nature of homosexuality is all about. To introduce and desensitize children into this behavior is criminal.
C.B.
I wonder if you and Fergus are drinking the same kool-aid? Maybe you two belong to the same outdated, oppressive, bigoted, so-called "Christian" church which in actuality is a shallow, hollow bldg. filled with self righteous, judgemental, right-wing nuts who feel those who don't think as they do are doomed to hell. In my church (my soul), my God is ALL loving to ALL people, including all races, ethnicity, sexual preferences and so on. C.B., how lucky you were to be born blessed with having your body and mind in sync...a luxury many of our fellow citizens around the world don't have. Stop referring to the book written thousands of years ago without the benefit of scientic awareness to further your narrow minded and ill informed beliefs. People like you who espouse hatred and unfairness (homosexuals shouldn't be able to parent) make the world a more divisive place and impede progress.
No religion involved....
Common sense tells us that, biologically, it takes one man and one woman to make a real family and have children. Faux families that homosexuals are now delving into just make a difficult process even more difficult for selfish reasons. Although I don't really agree, I respect the Supreme Courts decision to not overturn another states court decisions. These two selfish dimwits created this situation themselves and are not really fighting for love of the child but self ego. Face it, boys do not belong with boys and girls do not belong with girls, especially when an impressionable child is in the mix. Since these two decided to detour down a nasty selfish non-biological path and had the audacity to bring a child into it, the child should be put up for adoption into a real family.
"turning from God's word"
Does fergus practice every belief espoused in the Bible?
Your Bible.....
is an outdated book of parables. The court decided wisely. This country is a democracy not a theocracy. If you want to live in a country governed by religous doctrine then move to Iran. If you think Christians aren't as brutal as Muslims then you are ignorant to history. The court has moved us closer to equality for all, not just christian zealots!
fergus
"There are no religions in the world that accept homosexuality as normal.Yes there are churches here in the US that accept them as normal,but no religions anywhere whether it be the Christian bible,the Qur'an or The Torah."
Personally I don't care what any church or religion does, but wait you must think I'm not a Christian, but wait.....I am. I don't need a church building to have MY faith or be told by a group of people sitting in one to tell me how to think, but wait what is "normal". In your narrow mind of "normal" you eleminate everything and everyone that isn't a carbon copy of YOU, but wait that isn't being narrow minded that's being a bigot. My God loves me just as much as your God love you. Gay's and lesbians are just as "normal" as you and I are. Your path isn't narrow, it's misguided and an end to nowhere. When we both get to heaven have your people call my people and we'll do lunch!