More embarrassing news from the comedy-wealth of Virginia. It seems a lesbian couple, Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins, who got civilly unionized in Vermont in 2000, went through an extremely uncivil divorce in '03, when Miller found Jesus and decided she wasn't gay any more. The wrinkle here is that Miller got pregnant via artificial insemination after the union was formalized, resulting in a daughter who is now at the center of a bitter custody battle.In 2003, after the couple broke up, Miller fled from blue Vermont to redneck Virginia in order to avoid the shared custody ordered by the Rutland County, Vermont court. Miller now considers rug munching sinful and doesn't want her daughter raised by a sister of Sappho. The court found that Jenkins should be awarded primary custody in light of Miller's refusal to allow visitation by her former spouse.
In a surprising twist, when the legal battle spilled over into Virginia, the courts here repeatedly found in the favor of honoring the Vermont court's decision. The child was to be turned over to Ms. Jenkins on January 1st.
Rather than submit to the custody order, the born again ex-lesbian decided it was better to go into hiding with the child and is now on the lam. Miller has not made contact her her attorneys for over a month. Her whereabouts remain unknown.
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Surely there are similar precedents to draw upon involving hetro couples. Namely, situations where the mother's male partner/husband is not the biological father, and has not adopted the child, but at some point had a supportive relationship to the child as a stepfather.
ReplyDeleteI can think of anecdotal cases involving people I've known (in which case the former stepfather has no rights), but I'm not a legal scholar so I'd appreciate any info on the matter. Anyone?