Not Quite Heaven, West Virginia

In early June, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Kathryn Kutil and Cheryl Hess, a lesbian couple who have been fostering an 18-month-old girl since shortly after she was born, can maintain custody and not turn the child over to an opposite-sex couple for adoption, as ordered by a lower court. Here’s my post about the ruling.

The New York Times Magazine published a long article this week on the case and the couple’s long battle with the foster care system. Hess and Kutil have fostered 18 kids between the ages of 1 and 16 in the past two years, all of whom had suffered abuse or neglect. One was adopted by Kutil. (The article says they couldn’t adopt jointly; my understanding is that it is unclear whether West Virginia would allow them to do so, but it might be more of a struggle in any case.)

Note that the state Supreme Court ruling was not the same as granting an adoption. The Court just said the women could not be denied the right to apply for one simply on the basis of being a same-sex couple. Kutil and Hess are now going through the usual adoption process, “which will require the approval of Health and Human Services and confirmation by a county judge,” the NYT notes.

The paper also quotes Hess as saying, “Every day, you wake up and have this perfect baby, and you’re like this normal family. Yet you sit and wait for somebody else to decide if you get to keep her. You’re at the mercy of other people deciding your life.”

Best of luck to them. It shouldn’t take so long to give a child a good home.