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Blender Sara dropped this great news in the Blend in-box. The WV Supreme Court has ruled that a foster child cannot be taken from her foster parents simply because they are lesbians.
A little background from last year:
Kutil and Hess wanted to formally adopt the baby once she became eligible, earlier this year. The only problem was a court-appointed “child advocate” who didn’t like Kutil’s and Hess’s sexual orientation.
Neither did Fayette County Circuit Judge Paul Blake Jr., who ordered the child removed from the couple’s home on that basis alone. Well thank heavens for a rational WVSC.
The [West Virginia Supreme Court] noted there was no reason to believe the girl wasn’t thriving with Hess and Kutil, and said there was no legal reason to take her away from the couple.“As a matter of fact, the court was never presented with any actual evaluation of the home or evidence of the quality of the relationship” the girl had with Kutil and Hess, the justices said. “All indications thus far are that (the girl) has formed a close emotional bond and nurturing relationship with her foster parents, which can not be trivialized or ignored.”
The justices said Blake only ruled in favor of removing the child to promote placing her with a heterosexual couple.
“The conclusion itself represents a blurring of legal principles applicable to abuse and neglect and adoption,” the decision said. “Even if our current statutes, rules and regulations could somehow be read to support the adoption preference proposed by (Blake) such a newfound principle would need to be harmonized with established law.”
Instead, the court said either Hess or Kutil, as qualified foster parents, “would at the very least need to be considered if not favored in the selection of the prospective adoptive home.”
West Virginia doesn’t allow same-sex couples to adopt, but either of the women could adopt as an individual.
Fundie reaction much as expected. From Family Policy Council of West Virginia:
“This court has placed the emotional desires of two adults above the best interests of the child as stipulated by state law,” President Jeremy Dys said in a statement. “Foster parenting is, by definition, a temporary arrangement with no guarantee or promise of adoption. Couples who do not qualify as adoptive parents should not expect to become adoptive parents.”
Suck on it, fellas.
But please, folks, don’t tell me that WV is vulnerable to a legislative or constitutional ban on adoption by gays.
5 Comments
WV has been quietly doing very well this past year on LGBT issues.The courts and the legislature have been very good about acting in accordance with actual core American values and real pro-family beliefs.
For all the Republican-imposed disadvantages that this state is burdened with — including an intentionally broken school system and non-stop out-of-state right-wing propaganda in its local papers and radio and tv stations — they’ve been doing the right thing a lot there recently.
That this is happening in WV proves that the crazies have lost. I hope that the state’s only regional LGBT organization, Fairness WV, is asking for and receiving offers of support from our national groups. With more education and outreach, we can speed up bringing the state solidly to the side of equality.
adoptionI mentioned the Supreme Court victory in a Diary post yesterday. I have since discovered in a Dominion Post article that same-sex couple adoptions are not currently legal in WV. It is to be hoped that Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer and other advocates of civil rights in WV can correct that.
so you did.somehow i missed seeing your diary. what kind of lgbt-related legislation is realistically on the horizon in WV?
“This court has placed the emotional desires of two adults above the best interests of the child as stipulated by state law”actually what the court did was quite to opposite of what Mr. Dys claims it’s done. Per the court opinion:
The child’s physical well-being is good under the care of her foster parents, the foster parents can afford to support the child and attend to her needs, and the child has developed a close emotional bond and thinks of her foster parents as her parents. If you would not rip a child away from the foster parents if they were a heterosexual couple, to do so solely because they are homosexual would be inflicting gross emotional damage on the child. Keeping her in the secure, nurturing home environment provided is, most definitely, in the child’s best interests; taking her away from that home is tantamount to child abuse.
nadaRealistically, none. But some legislators have at least kept the fundies at bay with some of their outrageous proposals.