Court grants equality in custody matters

SUMMARY: The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that visitation and custody matters should not be determined by sexual orientation.

The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that visitation and custody matters should not be determined by sexual orientation.

In a case pitting a bisexual father against his former wife, the three-judge panel reversed the decision of a lower court, which had imposed restrictions on the father, but none on the mother.

According to the Rocky Mountain News, the divorced parents had agreed that the mother would keep custody of their daughter (now 10), while the father would see her on alternate weekends. But once the mother learned that her former husband considered himself bisexual, she returned to family court and convinced a judge to limit the activities he could pursue with the girl.

In particular, the lower court ordered the father to stop taking his daughter to the gay Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) church, and also forbade the man from having overnight guests of any sort during his daughter's visits.

The mother, on the other hand, was not subjected to any ground rules, even though she took her daughter to a conservative Christian church. The judge's reasoning included the notion that the girl might be exposed to "hugging" or "showing of affection" between same-sex partners at the MCC services.

In overturning the lower court, the panel ruled that family courts may not interfere with the religious choices made by parents, and that they may not put conditions on parents' visitation unless a child's emotional or physical well-being was at stake.

The decision, said Lambda Legal Defense attorney Myron Quon, removes one additional barrier for gay and lesbian parents: "They don't have to be worried about being treated like second-class residents of Colorado."

Recently, a Georgia appellate panel took on a similar issue, hearing arguments in the case of a lesbian who is forbidden by court order to see her children when an unrelated adult is sharing her household. The mother, who has entered into a Vermont civil union with her partner, is arguing that the visitation restriction violates state law, and further, that her partner is legally related.