What?????????????????????????????????????

there are a few facts that I am sure the religious right will not tell anyone about this situation

You mean….
The religious ‘the bible, which contains a commandment not to lie, is the inerrant word of god’ right will lie by omission????
That’s never happened….
oh wait…
never mind.

Good for her, bad for usOh, boy.  This is going to be a sh*t storm of epic proportions.  I can see the headline now…
Activist Judge Takes Girl from Christian Mother! Gives Her to Militant Lesbian for Indoctrination!  
Liberal Judge Rules Christian Cant Raise Their Own Children!  Little Girl to be Raised by Gay Activist!
Well still a good thing for the people involved.  I just hope it doesn’t hurt us nationwide.  

This could bode well for future legal fightsAlliance Defense Fund and Liberty Counsel have a habit of taking up these “ex-gay” or even simply split-up-gay-parent-child custody cases. They do so for the sole purpose of causing pain to gay and lesbian people seeking to be a part of their child’s life. The tragic case of Gena Edvalson is yet another episode in this horror movie. Edvalson tried for years to get pregnant and couldn’t, so her partner, Jana Dickson, underwent insemination. They split up when the baby was 17 months old, and Edvalson attempted to maintain a parental relationship. Dickson denied her visitation. After a year-long family court battle, a Utah judge ruled that Edvalson had no rights to the child, not being the biological parent.
Your private-contract-co-parenting agreements will not protect you in a court of law, especially in a place as evil as Utah. There must be a legal second-parent adoption or you have no rights to the child you have raised and loved as your own.

RE: Zazu…“I just hope it doesn’t hurt us nationwide.”
Who cares if it is good for us. As long as it is good for the little girl.

Is it good for the girl?I suspect having your parents fight for custody like that is the most traumatizing thing a child can go through.  The thing kids need most of all is a stable home, being yanked from one household to another is about the worst thing you could do.  I can’t believe her mother wouldn’t settle this in some reasonable way…  I understand why the judge made the decision, but the whole situation is absolutely terrible.    

I’m hopefulI don’t know this family personally or anything beyond what I’ve read about this case. I would think that the judge had all the information necessary when making this decision, though.
Personally, I am happy that Judge Cohen was able to filter through all the bullshit and make the decision that is in the best interest of the child.  

AgreedIt all stems from the selfishness of a parent. What a wonderful thing to teach a child.
It’s no wonder why this country by and large is such a total mess. As soon as I have my degree, my partner and I are gone. I’m through struggling in a country that lives in a vaccuum of “moral” superiority.

Why is this bad for us?I am not worried about the headlines in the theocratic right press. Headlines will come; if not these, then something similar. To not live in any way that might present even the tiniest seed for the theocratic right to distort into their illogical, hate-filled diatribes is to live on the terms of people who are ruled by hate. To doubt the goodness of something because it might sustain them is silly; one would logically have to doubt the goodness of light, air, and water because these things also sustain them.
So ease your mind. If this decision helps Jenkins and her child, then celebrate it for doing so. If bad headlines come, remind yourself that they can be blamed entirely upon the people who lied and distorted to create them, and not upon the decision itself. The effort that you will make to explain for the nth time why the headlines are a distortion is an effort you would have made in any case, if not for these headlines then for others.

The child is a victimof the blindered bigotry that caused this outcome.
ADF/Liberty Counsel have been trolling for these cases around the country, with their mission to support anyone who will behave as this mother did: We made a family, now I want out and I’m counting on bigotry to put my desires above all the rules.
This type of case is an important part of their service offering. The relationship recognition cases that make it to court are losers for them.
Sadly, when the state enforces the law these extremists don’t agree with, kids pay a terrible price.
While I agree that the ‘ex-gay’ bio mom was deeply wrong to pursue this and traumatize her own child, she was told by the men in authority at her new church that they would provide her with free lawyers to fight this to the ends of the earth. It’s on them too.
The lesbian mom is also a victim: Did she really have a choice? For herself, I guess she might have chosen to walk away from her kid and hope for repair and reconciliation in another decade. But that would have been a devastating blow to all of us who rely on our government to respect our rights–Alliance Defense Fund would have been emboldened by that, and raised gazillions of dollars to repeat the act.
So what I see is a religious minority hurting an innocent family to explore the potential for our secular laws to enforce their version of morality. Not a good advertisement for their views.

They have been using this case against ussince the case started.
One thing I can tell you is the kids from nasty divorces are affected.  One thing the courts do is allow these cases to be dragged out, with the hope the parties involved will settle their differences on their own.  Many cases end up settled.  The ones that don’t end up costing everyone involved a lot of money.
But with those facts aside, the religious right has been slamming LGBT parents for decades.  This case wont change how they lie about us, they will just use it to spread more fear and lies.

WWSDor What Would Solomon Do?  If you recall, King Solomon in the Judeo/Christian scriptures adjudicated a dispute between two women over a child.  He chose to award the child to the one who had the child’s best interests in their heart.  The decision here looks just as wise.  
The wingnut haters would rather let the child be raised by a person who has already used the child as a pawn in a power play.  Might as well just saw her in half…

“Virginia Appeals Court Give Full Faith and Credit to North Carolina Custody Order for Gay Dads”Leonard Link has a related story up about how the VA appeals court has given full faith in credit to the Ca domestic partnership of two men who hired a woman to be the surrogate birth mother for their child.  She has since decided not to honor their agreement, and so far the court is siding with the men.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia ruled on November 24 that the Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court had properly accorded full faith and credit, as required by the U.S. Constitution, to a North Carolina judicial decision awarding primary legal and residential custody of a child to two gay men (who are registered California domestic partners). Still pending before the lower court is a demand by the woman who served as surrogate mother for this child that the North Carolina custody ruling be modified to give her sole custody. One of the judges on the Court of Appeals argued in dissent that the case was not properly before the court for review.  Prashad v. Copeland & Spivey, 2009 Westlaw 4030852 (Va.App., Nov. 24, 2009).
In September 2003, Roberto-Luis Copeland and Philip Spivey contracted with Tanya Prashad, a married woman, for her to be a surrogate mother of their child. This contract was made in Minnesota. Copeland and Spivey both donated sperm that was mixed together to inseminate Prashad, and their child, identified by the court as A.C.C., was born in Minnesota in August 2004. No DNA test was done to determinate who was the father, and Copeland was named on the birth certificate. A few days after A.C.C. was born, the two men moved with A.C.C. to North Carolina. P

Read the rest here.

OKI get that we should be able to live anywhere. I get that.
But why in the name of all that’s holy would two men involved in a custody dispute with a heterosexual couple move to VIRGINIA, of all places? Of all the short-sighted, stupid, blatantly ignorant moves I’ve ever heard of, that has absolutely got to take the prize.
There is a child involved here. Sorry, but principle flies out the window when you’re talking about the welfare of your children. And if it was a job offer that made them move, well, I have yet to see the job that’s worth potentially losing a child.

As anti-gay as Virginia isI’m ecstatic to see them enforcing child custody orders from other states without regard to the parents sexual orientation.
But, Copeland and Spivey should just render Prashad’s Virginia Court action moot by moving across the Potomac to D.C. or Maryland.

hehNow see, I wonder why anyone would move to Cali — but then, it has nothing to do with LGBT anything — I just have issues with the state, lol.
Probably part of the whole being from Arizona thing.
Should isn’t how I see it. Should requires that we look at this and see it not as something we can do, but as something that we cannot do.  Hence the “we should be able” instead of “we are able”.
That they did move shows that we are able, and that they fought and won shows that we can and will.
And that, by itself, is a phenomenal victory in a place where most of us believe that we cannot, yet should…

And that parent’s selfishness stems from bigotryRemember the issue here is that the former custodian became not merely ex-gay, but anti-gay. The harm accused and investigated was based on the idea that the harm was due to homosexuality.
As for leaving this country — I wish you good luck, good travels, and a good life.
I shall remain, however, rather than leave.  I’d rather fight and die and than not fight at all.

So gratefulto see more than one couple here in Washington split up and yet have their childrens’ best interests at heart. There CAN be amicable breakups. I despise it when children are turned into weapons. It can fuck them up for quite some time. Luckily, my wife’s kids had two parents (and spouses) who love them very much and they are now (pretty) well-adjusted adults. Children should ALWAYSALWAYSALWAYS be raised in an atmosphere of love and respect. If birth parents can’t do it, find another parent who can.

Some sanity to celebrateIt is rare these days when some sane adult makes an educated and very wise decision that will save a child from a lifetime of mental health problems.  
I will take our victories where ever and when ever.  This one is huge.
Thanks Judge Cohen!! xoxo

They probably thought it was settled.The blog entry makes it sound like the case in NC was settled, and then the Copeland-Spivey family moved to Virginia. Despite the anti-gay laws in VA, they probably didn’t predict that Prashad was going to try for change of venue.
The economy sucks right now and you take a job where you can get it, but Fairfax County isn’t that far from the Maryland border. I’ve done Gaithersburg to Alexandria for a short period of time before and Arlington to Baltimore for most of a year. Traffic is no fun, but you do what you have to do. DC will accept your marriage; in Maryland you can at least visit your partner in the hospital and all of the counties around DC have local ENDAs and partner benefits.
Still, I’m glad to hear that someone took on a Virginia court and got a positive outcome.