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It's Unanimous: Alabama Says No to Lesbian
Mother
On Friday,
15 Feb, the Alabama Supreme Court published a unanimous
decision holding that the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals had
improperly reversed an Alabama trial court's ruling refusing
to grant custody of three teenage children to a lesbian
mother. The mother was an alcoholic California woman who had
asked that custody be transferred to the father when she
began a homosexual relationship. Three years later she
petitioned to regain custody claiming that she was now sober
and that the father was abusive. The trial court held the
father was not abusive and that the mother's return to
sobriety did not amount to a material change in
circumstances that required the decision awarding custody to
the father to be reversed.
Judge Roy
Moore wrote a special concurring opinion stating that
because Alabama prohibits homosexual relationships, the
mother's conduct creates a presumption she is unfit to have
custody. The case is In re H.H., you can read the full
opinion, including Judge Moore's concurrence
here,
or download the opinion as a .pdf.
Excerpts from the concurrence follow:
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"I
write specially to state that the homosexual
conduct of a parent - - conduct involving a sexual
relationship between two persons of the same gender
- - creates a strong presumption of unfitness that
alone is sufficient justification for denying that
parent custody of his or her own children or
prohibiting the adoption of the children of others.
In
this case there is undisputed evidence that the
mother of the minor children not only dated another
woman, but lived with that woman, shared a bed with
her, and had an intimate physical and sexual
relationship with her. . . . . But Alabama
expressly does not recognize same sex marriages or
domestic partnerships. . . . Homosexual conduct is,
and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral,
detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation
of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon
which this Nation and our laws are predicated.
Such
conduct violates both the criminal and civil laws
of this State and is destructive to a basic
building block of society - the family. The law of
Alabama is not only clear in its condemning such
conduct, but the courts of this State have
consistently held that exposing a child to such
behavior has a destructive and seriously
detrimental effect on the children. It is an
inherent evil against which children must be
protected."
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