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Loading ...Montana Supreme Court weighs gay parental rights
04.20.2009 12:32pm EDT
(Missoula, Montana) A Montana woman wants the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that gave visitation and other parental rights to her former partner.
Barbara Maniaci wants the justices to overturn a 2008 lower court ruling that said her former partner, Michelle Kulstad, must be recognized as a co-parent to the two children the two women had been raising until their breakup.Maniaci and Kulstad had been in a 10-year relationship until it ended in 2006. Under state law, the women had no legal recognition as a couple and could not jointly adopt.
In 2001, Maniaci adopted an infant boy and in 2004 she adopted a baby girl. Kulstad, until the separation in 2006, jointly cared for the children. When Maniaci refused to allow her to see the children after the breakup, Kulstad went to court.
The lower court granted Kulstad time with her children and ordered that Kulstad have joint decision-making authority for matters significantly affecting the children, including their “education, activities, health care and spiritual upbringing.”
At the Supreme Court on Friday, Maniaci argued through her lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund – a legal organization that regularly fights LGBT issues – that she is no longer gay and now is married to a man and she is a “fit, natural parent,” and that she is being “prevented from raising her children with her husband in the way they see fit.”
Kulstad, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, argued that the high court would be ignoring the rights of children if it only took into account Maniaci’s rights.
“If the rights to the parents are virtually insurmountable, what does it mean for the children’s rights?” asked ACLU attorney Betsy Griffing. “Does that mean they are virtually meaningless?”
The case has generated considerable attention in Montana. If the court upholds the lower court ruling, it would set a precedent in the state for future same-sex parenting cases.
The justices heard arguments at the University of Montana theater where the UM Law School annually hosts a Montana Supreme Court hearing.
The court gave no indication when it would issue a ruling, but it typically issues a decision within 180 days.
Kate, as you said, why didn’t they move? I would say that they never did plan on separating. Most people in relationships don’t plan on them ending.
Although I am not sure in this case, most Same Gender couples do some legal stuff to make sure the other is protected in case of something tragic happens, and they were together for 10 years.
What is truly sad, Gay or Straight, when there is a split, the children are the ones who suffer.
Amanda, what makes this amazing is how ATYPICAL it is of gay & lesbian relationships. When you look at the numbers this is so rare in gay relationships compared to heterosexual relationships that it is staggering. But, thank you for suggesting that this is the only “viscious underside of lesbian relationships”! I think lesbian relationships are pretty awesome myself!
I don’t think it’s the underside of all lesbian relationships…there are two or three public cases out there right now, so these cases are really not all that common (when compared to the splits in which both continue to parent the children). There are two sides to this though: the first – why did Kulstad not pursue adoption (I know, the state did not grant joint adoption…so move – kids are important enough not to leave these things to chance, or don’t have them at all). Also, I’m sure this is common in hetero-families – where one parent has legal rights and the other loses out when separation occurs. The second – this “newly straight” woman should be tarred and feathered – and her lack of consideration for the children, betrayal of their other mother and then using the system to discriminate against her former partner should be taken into account by a judge looking at what’s best for the children. She clearly doesn’t have a shred of integrity.
Yes the viscious underside of lesbian relationships. The one that legally has the kids is free to decide that the other one is no longer a parent and they retreat into the straight world and use the arguments and legalities they rallied against when all was well. Thousands of children suffer each year from this vindictiveness and hateful reorganizing of a family that these women are allowed to get away with.