custody

According to ChildCustodyHelp2U.com, a third of all lesbians have children from previous heterosexual marriages, IVF or other means; and most gay custody cases involve lesbian moms where fitness as a parent is contested by the biological dad.

The group highlights the issue of homophobia in child custody cases by offering examples of recent custody decisions, such as Sharon Bottoms - who was sued for custody of her young son by her mother.

A female Michigan couple tests the boundaries of parental custody - with a lawsuit brought by the non-biological mother of their daughter and twin boys.

It's a battle that may reach the Michigan Supreme Court - and possibly secure joint custody rights for nonbiological, unmarried partners, gay or straight.

The Detroit Free Press reports:

A Bay Area woman has won the right to parental status and visits with the daughter of her former lesbian partner - who moved away when their daughter was 3-months old.

Charisma R., had been fully involved in conceiving and taking care of the child and was legally the child's co-parent. The ruling also allows her to argue for reimbursement of the costs of traveling to Texas, where her ex-partner lives with their now 6-year-old daughter.

I feel it is my duty to warn other prospective gay moms about using a known donor, such as a friend. I understand completely the desire to use a donor who is known and to have his involvement as an "uncle" or "Godfather" in the child's life, but I caution against this. The law is unchartered in this new area of family arrangements, and unsuspecting women could find themselves in an emotionally and financially costly court battle if the donor decides he wants more, despite any signed agreements.

Kristie Vowels and Tracy Scourfield had been a couple for more than four years and had gone through counseling to help them decide whether to have a child together. Scourfield gave birth to their daughter, conceived through IVF, on May 21, 2004.

A little more than a year later, the two women broke up and Scourfield and the little girl moved out of Vowels’ home - although Vowels’ continued to help support the child financially. The women agreed to and operated on a visitation schedule very similar to what is considered “standard visitation” in a heterosexual custody case.

The AP reports:

The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a woman's custody rights to the two children her same-sex partner adopted during their relationship.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday backed District Judge Ed McLean's ruling last year that granted Michelle Kulstad joint custody of the two children — a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl.

I thought since this issue was all over the web in the last couple of weeks that most people understood the issues involved, but just last week a neighbor came up to me and asked me that very question: So, what about Michael Jackson's kids?. I knew where he was going so I replied, just as I did for Tamera H. Bennett at her blog, Bennett Law Office (http://tinyurl.com/mq33ny), that in California, it doesn't matter if Michael used a sperm donor an egg donor and a surrogate for all of his children.