Posted on 06/18/2005 11:52:51 AM PDT by Crackingham
The West Virginia Supreme Court on Friday gave the lesbian partner of a deceased woman the parental rights over a 5-year-old child the two had been raising together. he court recognized 39-year-old Tina Burch of Clay County, the lesbian partner of the late Christina Smarr, as the “psychological parent” of the boy, then ruled it would be in the best interest of the child to stay with Burch.
Smarr’s parents had been fighting Burch’s attempt to gain permanent custody of the child. The slim 3-2 decision is the first time the state’s high court has recognized the standing of a gay or lesbian parent to be a “psychological parent” and to grant them legal custody on that basis. The court took into account that Burch and Smarr had planned for the birth of a child more than a year before he was born, finding a man to impregnate Smarr and then jointly raising the child.
“Thus, there unquestionably exists a relationship of significant duration between Tina [Burch] and [the child] in which Tina [Burch] has provided for the physical, psychological, financial and emotional needs of [the child] and such that the child regards Tina [Burch] as a parental figure in his life,” Justice Robin Davis wrote for the majority.
“Moreover Christina [Smarr] not only consented to the formation of this strong relationship between Tina [Burch] and the child; Christina [Smarr] actively fostered and nurtured this bond.”
The court noted that the Legislature consistently has said, “public policy of this state is to assure that the best interest of children is the court’s primary concern in allocating custodial and decision-making responsibilities between parents who do not live together,” Davis wrote.
The child’s biological father, identified in court records as “Clifford K.,” had filed for custody on behalf of Burch and supported her in the effort to maintain custody of the child.
“...Tina [Burch] is eager to legally assume [the child’s] custody and to continue attending to his daily needs, and his biological father, his sole surviving legal parent, readily agrees and enthusiastically consents to such an arrangement,” Davis wrote.
The FemiNazis are gaining increasing control of the courts. Kiss justice goodbye.
Just Damn!
Good lord....in West Va....so sad.
The kid's head is probably permanently damaged by now. It would cost the taxpayers a bundle for it's psychiatric care to get it straightened out.
"Let's start from the very beginning. Ready? This is a boy. This is a girl....."
I guess he couldn't handle raising a messed up kid, aye? Imagine being in his shoes! Talk about a dysfunctional family!
West Virginia, that is all you need to know!
While I agree, these two did raise the child from birth. Therefore, the child knows of no other parent and would be hurt much more by being separated from the one "parent" remaining.
It doesn't change the fact that such things are troublesome.
Is there a law that allows custody to be granted to "psychological parents" or is this just something the court made up?
It appears no one else wanted him. He's been 5 years in a lesbian household. He's got to be all screwed up. I suppose he'd be considered mentally disabled in the real world now.
It's not the child's fault he's been messed up, so I feel bad for him. They should have put him in a nice foster home.
He's only 5. There's still time to save him. He'd forget all about the lesbian sex partner over time if they put him in a normal household. It would be the best thing for him in the long run.
The die was cast back when this lesbian couple was allowed to raise a child as "their" own. The only positive here is that there is only one parent rather than a lesbian couple. Holding my nose, I would agree with the court, given the situation... which frankly, stinks.
And if the boy gets into ANY kind of trouble in school
or with the town officials, this "sterling" beginning
will come back to haunt everyone involved...including
the WVA Court Judges! Kids coming out of the NORMAL
two parent family today have enough hurdles to steer
clear of without this kind of stigma tangling up their
heels.
As of right now ...
So how come kids who have lived with adoptive parents for years are being handed back to birth parents who claim to have belatedly got their acts together? Wouldn't the only parents a child has known from birth, for 3-4-5 years or more, be the "psychological parents"?
In other words, the sperm donor who "imprenanted" the dead lesbian. Wonder how he "impregnated" her? Maybe I really don't want to know. And now Sperm Donor wants to gve an opinion on how to raise his Sperm Child? Sure, I will donate my sperm but I don't want to be the rather of this boy, give him to the lesbian lady my Sperm Partner was playing house with. Is this what Jesus meant by "as in the days of Noah?"
*shakes head*
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