Liberty Counsel Founder says federal marriage amendment needed to protect parental rights
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
February 27, 2007
(OneNewsNow.com) - - On February 16, the Utah Supreme Court refused to grant a lesbian petitioner parental rights to her former partner's child. Mat Staver of the pro-family legal group Liberty Counsel, which is currently handling two similar cases, calls the court's decision a "commonsense ruling," but he says a federal marriage amendment is still needed in order to protect parental rights.
The Utah case centered around Cheryl Barlow and Keri Jones, who moved in together as romantic partners in Utah but later traveled to Vermont and entered into a civil union. The two were still living together when Barlow gave birth following artificial insemination in 2001; however, she ended the relationship in 2003.
Barlow, who is now a Christian, moved with her child to a separate residence and eventually ended all contact between her daughter and her former partner, even successfully petitioning the court to remove the woman as co-guardian. Jones then filed a lawsuit, petitioning for parental rights to the child, including regular visitation rights.
A Liberty Counsel statement dated February 16 described the court's ruling against Jones as "a great victory for real parents, who should be the ones directing the lives of their little children." Liberty Counsel founder Mathew D. Staver applauds the ruling and feels other courts should follow suit; however, he says a federal marriage amendment is needed to put a stop to such cases.
"I think until we have a federal marriage amendment that protects marriage as [a union between] one man and one woman and gives parental rights to parents, we're going to see these kinds of cases evolve throughout the court system," Staver asserts. "And I think it's a big threat to the parental rights of parents," he adds.
According to the attorney, permitting unrelated individuals to share parental rights with biological parents undermines the family. Such arrangements can do great harm, he suggests, "especially when some people enter into a lesbian or a homosexual relationship and one person leaves that relationship, and then there is a child that is caught in the midst of that legal wrangling."
Although the biological mother in the Utah case was represented by an attorney with the pro-family Alliance Defense Fund, Florida-based Liberty Counsel is currently involved in two similar cases, defending biological mothers whose lesbian former partners are trying to obtain parental rights over the mothers' objections. Staver says courts should put an end to such cases once and for all.
According to the Liberty Counsel spokesman, such cases are a "needless tug of war over innocent children," who are caught in the middle when same-sex relationships fail to work out. Staver says the courts should protect the rights of biological mothers to direct the upbringing of their children without interference from non-parent, same-sex ex-partners.
