RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Virginia Supreme Court heard conflicting views Thursday on whether the state's ban on gay marriages and civil unions essentially voids a Vermont court's child visitation order in a dispute between two former lesbian partners.
The justices are reviewing a Virginia Court of Appeals ruling that Vermont has sole jurisdiction in the visitation battle between Lisa Miller of Winchester, Va., and Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven, Vt.
Miller's attorney, Mathew D. Staver, argued that the appeals court improperly ignored a Virginia statute and a constitutional amendment that prohibit same-sex unions and the recognition of such arrangements from other states.
"A Vermont same-sex civil union is invisible under the laws of this commonwealth," Staver said.
Joseph R. Price, an attorney for Jenkins, countered that recognition of civil unions is not the issue. He said the appeals court and courts in Vermont correctly ruled that the case is governed by the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, which says custody orders of one state must be enforced in other states.
"If the court interpreted the law as Lisa wants, it would encourage a number of absurd results," Price said, including the losers of custody cases "taking children and running to other states looking for a different result. That's exactly what the PKPA sought to avoid."
Miller and Jenkins lived in Virginia but went to Vermont to obtain a civil union in 2000. Two years later, Miller gave birth to a daughter conceived through artificial conception. After the three moved to Vermont, the couple split and Miller asked that state's courts to dissolve the civil union and sort out visitation.
Miller renounced her homosexuality and moved back to Virginia with her daughter after a Vermont court awarded visitation rights to Jenkins. On the day Virginia's gay marriage ban took effect, Miller asked a Frederick County, Va., judge to nullify the visitation order. The judge agreed, ruling that Miller alone had parental rights.
The appeals court reversed the ruling, and Miller appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.
Advocates for conservative causes and for gay rights have lined up on opposite sides in the custody battle. Miller's lead attorney is the founder of the conservative Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. The Family Foundation of Virginia and Concerned Women for America also have taken up Miller's cause.
Jenkins has the support of the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, a gay-rights organization.
The two sides did little to conceal their disdain for each other in remarks to reporters after the hearing. Price suggested the Liberty Counsel is trying to use the case to bolster its fundraising efforts. Staver said Jenkins' supporters are trying to make 6-year-old Isabella Miller "a political trophy of a homosexual agenda."
Lisa Miller, who attended the hearing, said at a news conference afterward that the battle has been traumatic for Isabella.
"There's already been damage," Miller said. "She's not the same child she was a year ago."
Leaning on the podium from which Miller spoke was a poster with a photo of the child in front of a Christmas tree, and the message: "Rescue hostage Isabella from Vermont court."
Miller said her former partner doesn't like the fact that Isabella is being raised in a Christian environment.
Jenkins did not attend the hearing but said in a statement through Lambda Legal: "I love and adore my daughter, and I am going to honor my commitment to be a parent. That is what I have been trying to do all these years, and I hope very much that the Virginia Supreme Court will allow me to continue to do that."
A decision is expected in June.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments
They just need to have civil unions all over the US, so they can deal with this, and end this big fight over gay marriage once and for all. . . . .why not give in to cancer when it starts attcking your body even if it is in just one or two spots?
They just need to have civil unions all over the US, so they can deal with this, and end this big fight over gay marriage once and for all.
weshlovrcm
Read the story a little more carefully and you will find out
1) Ms. Miller, a born-again Christain and ex-gay, is the biological mother of the child.
2) Isabelle Miller is being tramatized by this whole incident.
3) Ms Jenkins, the gay, is not the biological mother.
As with hetrosexual divorces where there are children involved, the parents often fight with one another and they usually do it thru the children. The child is the one who is hurt the most. Since Ms Jenkins is not in any way biologically connected with the child, she should give up this fight to spare the child's emotional well being if she so much cares for this child, which incidently, I don't believe she does.
How sad that a bisexual woman who conveniently claims to now be an "ex-gay" so as to get backing from anti-gay activist legal groups would rather promote homophobia than do what's right for the child. If she were really a Christian, she would understand what Christ meant when He commanded us to treat others as we want to be treated. Ripping a child from her parent is not following this commandment. Ms. Miller should be ashamed of herself for not putting the welfare of her daughter before her anti-gay activism.