PA Supreme Court Gives Custody to Domestic Partner

365gay.com is reporting that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided on November 29th not to hear a case in which custody of two boys was removed from their biological mother and award it to the mother's former domestic partner, thereby upholding a lower court ruling on the matter. The case involves two women who were in a relationship for fourteen years during which one of the women gave birth to twins as part of a planned family. The two women raised the kids as co-parents. After the relationship ended The birth mother originally had primary custody, but it was challenged in court by her former partner who charged that the birth mother was unable to provide a safe and stable environment. The courts agreed, giving full custody to the former partner.

PA has a law on the books (since 2001) that domestic partners have the same rights in family courts as spouses (PA has a statute outlawing same sex marriage and has no provisions for civil unions or other formal recognition according the HRC website). This is the first time, however, that a same-sex co-parent has been given custody over the biological parent.  This ruling has no bearing on other states, but may (hopefully) serve as a guide for future decisions, if not precedent. These decisions have come a long way from cases where it was ruled that a gay parent was automatically an unfit one, I recall one case of a woman losing custody of her children to her mother simply because she was in a lesbian relationship. Or more recently, odd restrictions placed on gay parents during who get partial custody such as those in Virginia:

1. permitting visitation only when the gay/lesbian parent’s domestic partner was absent;
2. prohibiting the gay/lesbian parent from residing with his or her partner as a prerequisite to having custody/visitation rights; and
3. requiring the gay/lesbian parent to conceal his or her sexual orientation from the parent’s own children. (from Equality Virginia)

It is also important that states, if they are going to deny marriage rights to couples, at least be willing to put politics aside and do what is best for the children involved which involves putting them with the most stable and loving parent they can.