The conservative Christian legal group Liberty Counsel is aiding a Denver ex-gay adoptive mother in a battle against the woman’s female former partner, who had joint parenting rights and retains visitation rights with their eight-year-old adopted daughter.
As a condition of receiving sole custody of the child, the mother had been warned by the judge to “make sure that there is nothing in the religious upbringing or teaching that the minor child is exposed to that can be considered homophobic.” It isn’t clear from the media coverage what was meant by “homophobic.”
Now, in addition to defending the mother’s freedom of religious expression, Liberty Counsel is seeking to sever the former partner’s visitation rights.
This whole situation stinks across the board. The Liberty Counsel may be right about the mother’s religious expression being stifled. But the LC response is to crush the partner’s and child’s religious freedoms. The LC appears willing to deny the child the benefit of having two parents — despite the organization’s opposition to single parents.
Both sides of this broken family could seek out a win-win-win solution for the former partners and the child. But with national pro-discrimination groups like the LC taking up the cause, an amicable settlement that respects the child’s ties to both parents seems unlikely.
“The Liberty Counsel may be right about the mother’s religious expression being stifled.”
So let me get this right. If two white lesbians adopt a Black female child, the couple seperates, and then one of the partners joins a White Supremecist Church ( https://www.rickross.com/reference/hale/hale51.html) … she should be able to forcefully and openly indoctrinate the child that she is a mini-chimplike creature seen as a dark entity in the Bible and should accept being a second-class missing link? Hello?
Bingo.
No, I was saying they need to compromise.
I believe there are limits to how much anyone can inflict one’s religion (antigay, racist, anti-medicine, whatever) on children without harming them.
But the judge in the custody case seems to have barred any religious sentiment that might be interpreted by anyone as antigay. Perhaps the ruling was narrow and specific in reach and the media coverage isn’t reflecting that. But based on the reporting, it sounds to me like the judge overreached in one direction, and the LC is exploiting by overreaching in the opposite direction.
This sort of absolutism turns little children into pawns in the culture wars. I don’t blame the lesbian partner for that; my guess is she simply wants the child to have two parents who love her, not a solo parent who teaches her to fear and hate the other parent.
Ted Olsen of Christianity Today mentions this story in CT’s weblog, citing only right-wing sources of information.
Between those sources and 365gay, only the ex-gay woman’s side of the story has been reported.
That is not balanced or detailed coverage, in my opinion.
Part of the context is that this case is in Denver, city and county of. A place where there are not many people sympathetic to conservative christians. Remember, Colorado has been an epicenter of the culture wars. It is also the place where Rev Enyart reigned, and probably still does, as the voice of the conservative christian. I shall always remember his proclamation of ‘may is homos make me puke month’. And the number of conservative churches that went along with this set up. There used to be commercials for this event on christian tv. So, the case makes sense to me. The antics of Will Perkins, CFFV, Enyart, Dobson on and on have exhausted all sympathy that cc’s might obtain in places where they are a minority.
As I recall, perhaps imperfectly, isn’t this the case where biological mother sued for alimony and child support. And won. But getting money from the other woman is not a freebie. It come with strings, which are only now becoming evident. Has anyone checked OutFront in the Rockies, CLIP or some other Colorado glbt sites for more info?
So far, Dale, it appears that this case is newly in the public eye, not one that has been in the media previously.
The child was adopted by Cheryl Clark, who now has primary physical custody; the judge has given Elsey McLeod typical benefits of joint legal custody (which probably include a child support payment obligation), with the Denver Post reporting that the judge’s “order said the women clearly intended to co-parent the child.”
In my mind, there are two issues at play here. First, the judge had every right to set terms for custody, but botched it by not specifying conditions more clearly. Second, Cheryl Clark either purposely or inadvertantly made the Liberty Counsel her spokesperson on a case that was under seal.
With McLeod and her attorneys heeding their ethical obligations by staying out of the public eye, the Liberty Counsel is free to raise hell by telling the story any way they please.
Thanks Steve for the update. My experience has been that there are cases where something is extensively reported in the gay press, particularly at the local level, before it ever gets picked up by larger circulation media. Just wondered, and realize that OutFront does not do a very good job of putting news online.
While the constitutional issues are indeed disturbing, i find this whole fiasco to be yet another indictment against gay marriage and gay adoption. If this poor child had been placed into a traditional family — as every child deserves, and mother nature intends — then we wouldn’t be having this ugly discussion over freedom of religion vs. the constitution.
As every child deserves? I take issue with that, and so would my kids.
Ah no, if she had been placed into a traditional family there would probably be roiling arguments over some other religious belief. I.e. one parent wants to raises the child Catholic and the other Jewish, Seventh Day Adventist, Hindu, ect. .
Yes Natalie, every child deserves what mother nature intended.
Granted, we don’t always get what we deserve. And sometimes we get more. But no child “deserves” to be aborted, or born unwanted and orphaned, or to have his home broken by divorce. Those are the mistakes of adult humans who know better. Mother nature had it right all along…
(I’ve blogged on this one today)
We will have to disagree on what mother nature intended. Your blog isn’t on my list, so I will have to miss it.
Vigilance,
With all due respect, the circumstances between Cheryl Clark, Elsey McLeod and Sadie closely mirror the divorce between my ex-wife and me as it affected our children.
If mother nature had truly rendered Clark and McLeod inappropriate parents and Sadie an unworthy recipient of devoted parents, she should also have rendered me impotent.
For better or worse, my children exist and I am their one and only father; by the same token, Sadie has a vital relationship with Elsey McLeod.
Now what?
Look, let’s get something straight. This is about as dumb as saying that a custodial parent should have the right to order the use of prayer healing on a child. Putative custodial parents do not have the unfettered right to determine the courses of action in regards the children that have been entrusted to their care.
This story is again in the news at the appellate level. This time several things jump out at me. Now the Alliance Defense Fund (another Dobson creation) is involved. The unsealing of records when they don’t get their way is nothing new. They used the same tactics in my divorce case in 1995. They requested the seal, “to protect the children,” then, when the lost the case unsealed it to unleash a fundamentalist pressure campaign on the courts. What hypocrites, they only care about winning their kulturkrieg. They were successful, as I have been unable to have contact with my children for over 10 years. They don’t care who they hurt in the process of worshiping their idol – political power. I absolutely HATE that organization. Although I feel that that serve some good by litigating religious freedom issues, generally, the EVIL they have done to families outweighs it totally in my opinion. I wish no personal harm on the personnel of the ADF or its founders, but I really hope and pray the organization litigates itself to DEATH over the same-sex marriage issue. They are going to lose; and more and more I consider that both “Christian politician” and “Christian lawyer” are oxymorons.
365gay.com yesterday published an update on the Denver ex-gay adoptive mother’s appeal.