Some good news for the holiday weekend: A Vermont court has given non-bio mom Janet Miller-Jenkins the right to visit her five-year-old daughter Isabella, whom she hasn’t been able to see or contact in over two years. Her former partner, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, kept their daughter from her in a headline case that bounced between the jurisdictions of Vermont and Virginia.
The couple had created Isabella together, and had a civil union in Vermont. After the couple separated, Lisa Miller-Jenkins moved to Virginia, began espousing conservative Christian beliefs, and declared herself straight. She enlisted the help of an ultra-right legal organization to try and gain sole custody. Now, however, a court has granted Janet visitation rights. Because Vermont does not allow joint custody, reports the Rutland Herald, Janet is in turn seeking primary custody, with visitation rights for Lisa.
This week’s ruling, nevertheless, must come as an immense relief for Janet. I cannot fathom missing two years of my child’s life. I wish her and Isabella all the best as they reconnect.
(Thanks, PageOneQ.)
I wish them well, too.
Religious overtones aside (although it’s an important case and one I was glad was decided correctly), it saddens me to see any parents engage in tug of war over their children. Nobody wins.
Take care. I’ll see you around here or on the forum formerly known as BB.
I know ‘any parents’ fighting over kids is sad but I get so wild when lesbians do it. It’s not rational (on my part). Obviously it’s bad for the child but ‘Can’t they see?’, I rage, that it also affects the rest of us – people make generalisations and assumptions about ‘all lesbians’ when individuals do stupid things that they never would if the perpetrators were straight. I believe there’s a psychological term for that.
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