Once upon a time Lisa and Janet fell in love. They were so in love that they decided to get married and start a family. Since marriage wasn’t legal for two women, they went to Vermont and got a civil union instead. And then Lisa got pregnant and had a baby girl. Janet cut the umbilical cord.
Now Lisa and Janet wanted a happy life where they could raise their child in safety and comfort. Virginia was spewing out some pretty nasty anti-gay language and legislation so the brides took their baby and moved to Vermont.
But alas, as is sadly too often the case, Lisa and Janet fell out of love. And filed for divorce (well, actually to dissolve the civil union) in Vermont. A judge made a ruling that Janet was to be allowed generous visitation of their daughter.
Lisa wasn’t particularly happy about this. She took her daughter and fled back to Virginia.
Then the legislature of Virginia passed a law which they decided superseded any other law in the nation. They decided that any action taken by any other state in recognizing a same-sex couple was null and void in Virginia. Unlike other states in which a relationship might not be recognized, Virginia decided that it reversed any contracts entered by any gay people anywhere.
Now Lisa saw a way to block her daughter from having any access to her other mother. She could claim that since she lived in Virginia, the civil union never occurred. It was all just a big dream like that really awful season of Dallas when JR was shot.
But fighting this unique argument in court would require a pretty hefty legal team. After all, Federal law said that once custody proceedings were started in one state, that state had jurisdiction. Shopping for a better custody result simply wasn’t legal and if Lisa wanted to not be thrown out on her ear she’d need someone pretty scary to go to bat for her. That would be expensive and Lisa just didn’t have that kind of cash.
And then a miracle occurred. Lisa discovered the cure for lesbianism.
Like a bolt out of heaven, in just one month, Lisa was healed. And she since was now a former lesbian, then anti-gay religious groups would fund an all-out full-scale war against Janet. No longer was Lisa a bitter ex-spouse but now she was a Christian former-lesbian fighting against the Homosexual Agenda.
And until today it looked pretty successful. Although the Vermont Supreme Court upheld the state’s lower court decisions, a Virginia county judge named John Prosser decided that of course he could overturn the decisions of another state. And he could ignore federal law. After all, he’s a county judge from a good moral state, not some liberal jurist from Vermont.
He decided that Virginia’s Affirmation of Marriage Act revoked any rights granted to Janet by Vermont. Poof! Magic! It all never happened. Lisa never made vows or promises and Janet was, well, just a friend of the child’s and an ex-friend at that.
Today Prosser found out otherwise. The Court of Appeals in Virginia overturned his ruling.
Now far be it from me to suggest that Lisa’s newfound heterosexuality was based more in spite than in any change to her sexual orientation. And, of course, I’d never imply that Prosser was an activist judge trying to legislate from the bench; he is, after all, anti-gay and we know that “activist judges” tend to rule for equality.
And surely I’d never accuse the Center for American Cultural Renewal of taking the case solely in an effort to hurt a lesbian. I’m sure they get involved in thousands of custody cases… or plan to anyway… someday… maybe.
Lisa has one more chance. She can appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court. And it’s likely that she will; I mean it’s not like it costs her anything. Well, nothing other than her integrity. So it will be a while longer before this little girl gets to just be a child and not a pawn in the great culture war that has been declared on the lives of gay Americans by those pretending to be representatives of morality and faith.
This is not the last court case you will hear out of Virginia, as Virginia has just passed a law (via referendum) that goes BEYOND the Affirmation of Marriage Act — so far beyond (and so vaguely worded) that it likely invalidate anything, any couple — same-sex or otherwise — would do that would appear to circumnavigate heterosexual marriage, thereby invalidating any contract between two people that gives those people anything that would covered under a marriage license — joint ownership of property, wills, etc. etc. etc. I don’t understand how Virginia has gone so far off the deep end, but it makes me long to get back to California as soon as humanly possible.
Ultimately all of these laws are going to run into the Full Faith and Credit clause of the US Constitution which requires states to recognize contracts that are formed in other states. This is the basic weakness of the Defense of Marriage Act and the reason that the political Religious Right are so bent on a constitutional ammendment banning same sex marriage. They already know that their current laws denying recognition of same sex marriages and civil unions performed in other states are just flat out unconstitutional.
Social conservatives also know they are in a race against the clock. If they can get a ban on same-sex marriage into the US constitution, they might be able to hold progress back a few decades.
It took all of three decades for public support of laws preventing mixed-race marriage to go from being supported by 94% of the people to over 67% of the people SUPPORTING the right of a mixed-race couple to marry one another.
Here in California, 47% of the people supported the implementation of same-sex marriage law while 47% supported an anti-gay marriage platform.
That’s an even split folks. Wait five more years and what will we be able to achieve, so long as we keep the US constitution free of anti-gay bigotry?
The full faith and credit clause is exactly why the issue was decided in favor of Janet Miller-Jenkins. Ruling text is here.
This just proves the claims of Exodus: change IS possible.
If you hate someone enough.
I’ve heard of this, but you articulate the problems with it so well. I wonder how soon Lisa would decide whether the path isn’t working for her once she gets her way, and whether she’s already “fallen.”
And if she does make that kind of decision, I suggest that women remember, and practice the Lysistrata method of protest.
Jayelle, am I the only one that had never heard of the Lysistrata method of protest? How cool.
Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I was the last to know. Thanks for my daily bit of education. 🙂
I too wonder how long she will stay ex-gay. It’s a very hard (some would say almost impossible) goal long-term, and that’s when most folks who attempt it truly feel that it is something they must do to please God. Can’t imagine how hard it would be to stay “ex-gay” when the only reason is revenge.
Hey don’t feel too bad for her. She only has to stay a “former lesbian” until the case is over.
Incidentally, this effort of hers may have cost her primary custody of the child. The Vermont court is considering sanctions for not her refusal to comply with their orders and primary custody may be at stake. In the eyes of the court being a Christian former lesbian does not exempt one from complying with visitation rulings.
I live in VA and I applaud this ruling. I only wish Missouri had been as enlightened during the 90s.
I live near VA, the most fascist state in the Union. But the blame is squarely in the lap of the catty lesbian who is just being mean to her ex. One can only hope that Karma catches up to her. Perhaps in an additional court ruling not in her favor.