Janet Jenkins in court
Here's an update on a previous story I posted; when is Miller going to give up? All Janet Jenkins wants is to see the daughter they had when they were together! I think Miller will be one who ends up leaving the country just to keep her ex from seeing their daughter. I hate to think of what this is doing to the child....
Vermont Judge Issues Stern Warning In Lesbian Child Custody Battle
A Vermont Family Court Judge has issued a stern warning to Lisa Miller of Winchester, Virginia telling her that she risked losing custody of her child if she continued to violate the court order granting Miller’s ex-partner Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven, VT visitation rights.
This has been a long and often bitter custody battle.
When their child Isabel was conceived by Miller via artificial insemination, they were both living in Vermont and had formalized their relationship in a civil union. This gave Vermont jurisdiction over the case.
When the couple broke up, the Vermont Courts granted Jenkins visitation, and had awarded Millet child support payments from Jenkins. Miller fled to Virginia and declared that she was no longer a lesbian and hired the Conservative Christian law firm, The Liberty Council, to defend her. Miller then went to court in Virginia, which does not recognize civil unions and has some of the most anti-homosexual laws in the country, to demand sole custody.
Jenkins fought the filing stating that the courts in Vermont had already ruled and the Vermont court declared that it had sole jurisdiction over the case.
In 2007, Virginia’s Supreme Court sided with the Vermont courts.
Liberty Council then appealed to the US Supreme Court which declined to hear the case.
The Liberty Council returned to the Virginia Circuit Courts to halt the visitation order, but the judge in that case stated that Virginia’s Supreme Court had already ruled.
The Liberty Council then again appealed to the Virginia’s Supreme Court which then sited the Parental Kidnap Prevention Act, which requires courts in other states to adhere to preexisting custody and visitation awards and refused to hear the case again giving sole jurisdiction to Vermont.
On January 28th, Vermont Judge William Cohen allowed Miller to retain custody, but ordered unsupervised visitation for four days in March, over the Memorial Day holiday and for five weeks in the summer, warning that this may be revisited shortly if Miller continues refuses to allow Jenkins visitation.
Vermont is one of the few states to have either civil unions or same-sex marriage laws.
2 comments:
Sadly this is what the LGBT community is asking for when it fights for legalized union. This is the same fight that the hetero community has been going through for a half century since divorce became the standard and not the exception. While tragic in its own way, some gay couple at some point in time was going to have to fight this out in court to set the precedents.
On the other hand it sounds as if the courts are coming down on the side of what is best for the child, in that it allows both parents to retain active rights.
And that's the way it should always be WM, consider what's best for the child. That child grew up knowing them both to be her parents, and to suddenly take one away is wrong on so many levels...
You're right about a gay couple having to fight the battle. If we want the same rights we have to accept the same responsibilities and obligations, and we're going to get the same wars to fight whether we like it or not.
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