A case of two lesbians, one of whom has become a Christian and completely renounced the homosexual lifestyle, has tested the strength and definition of parenting roles and laws in the United States.
In a potentially precedent-setting case, a Vermont Court has ordered that sole custody of a Virginia woman’s 7-year-old daughter be transferred to the woman’s former lesbian lover by 1 January 2010.
Lisa Miller (pictured-on left), the former lesbian who subsequently became a Christian, had given birth to her daughter Isabella through artificial insemination in 2002 while still living in a civil union with Janet Jenkins in Vermont, US, but left Jenkins and the lesbian lifestyle about a year later. Ms Jenkins, who has no biological or legal relationship with Isabella, later brought a legal action in a Vermont Court pursuing custody of Ms Miller’s daughter, who is currently living with her mother in Virginia, US.
Ms Jenkins maintains the Vermont civil union guarantees her parental rights and states she believes it is not good for a child to be raised in a Christian atmosphere. A Vermont judge ruled in her favour in 2003, ordering that she be allowed liberal, unsupervised visits with Isabella.
At the end of November 2009, the Court issued the order of sole custody to Ms Jenkins despite Ms Miller's insistence that her daughter Isabella has shown signs of trauma from previous court-ordered visitations with Ms Jenkins, including a complaint from Isabella that she was forced by Ms Jenkins to bathe naked with her. Ms Miller told the Court that for this reason she refused to comply with the visitations that the Court had ordered.
Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, said:
‘How can a third party, a stranger, interfere with the parental rights of a biological parent when that parent is fit?
‘We’re certainly not happy with the order. I think Lisa [Miller] is devastated that the court would grant custody to Jenkins – a person who Isabella doesn't know. The only person known to her is her mother.’
Rena Lindevaldsen, professor at Liberty University School of Law, said the decision is another example of where activist judges are taking the culture.
‘To have the first reported decision in the country stripping a biological mother of her child, solely because she has refused to give visitation to a legal stranger, is shocking.
‘There's a lot of talk nowadays about drawing that line in the sand and understanding that government cannot order certain things. When you are ordering a child to be stripped from her biological mother, you've got to wonder, has the court overstepped its bounds?,’ she said.
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, the largest US public policy women's organisation aiming to bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy, said that the Vermont Court ‘showed little understanding of the case or sensitivity to children’ by asserting that ‘the change in parental custody, which includes moving to a new home, school, and state to live with a virtual stranger, would cause some disruption for Isabella but would not be out of the norm for a child.’
‘This decision could influence custody battles beyond Vermont. It treats a partner in a civil union no differently than a biological or legal parent in a custody battle,’ Ms Wright added.
Ms Miller is reported on the Life Site News website as saying:
‘We just keep on praying, and we don't loose hope, and we look to the Lord for his mercy and his justice. I really really believe that this case God is using to not only bring people to him, to Christ, but also to bring Christians to a better understanding that we need to take a stand for what is right and continue with that, with His help, and with His grace, because that's the only way that I've been able to get through all of this.’
The decision of the Vermont Court has startled even some of the supporters of the pro-homosexual Queerty website. One of them said:
‘This is a terrible ruling for children everywhere. What kind of monster takes a child away from their mother... This is a human rights violation for the child.’
Another added:
'It's easy to pick on the biological mother. We don't like her religious beliefs, we don't like her politics. But the fact remains that that is dangerous precedent for mothers, who [are] under increasing pressure to ‘cooperate’ with ex's regarding their children, regardless of the ex's history of abuse, alcoholism, and abuse. Please familiarize yourself with the fathers’ rights movement and their war on women – just because you don't identify yourself as heterosexual doesn't mean that you aren't in their crosshairs.’
In response to what Liberty Counsel is calling ‘judicial tyranny’, concerned Virginia citizens have joined together to form the Protect Isabella Coalition, a grassroots effort aiming to create awareness about Ms Miller and Isabella’s court proceedings.
The coalition’s website states:
‘Six-year-old Isabella Miller did not arrive in the world in ‘the usual way’. Her ‘dad’ is an anonymous sperm donor. The only father she really has known is her Heavenly Father, thanks to the love and godly teaching of her real (biological) mother and role model, Lisa Miller.’
Andrea Minichiello Williams, Director of CCFON, said: ‘The decision in Isabella’s case is another result of the legal and political confusion brought about by the so-called ‘equality’ policies advocated by aggressive liberal lobby groups across the Western world. The departure from the biblical, God-given, notion that the family consists of a man and a woman created conflicting legal provisions, in which society, and especially, children, have found themselves on the losing side. Now is the time to return to the biblically informed wisdom of parenting and the family.’
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