The juvenile judge who has ordered a foster child be removed from a Utah same-sex couple’s home to be placed with a heterosexual couple now seems to be backing down on his order.
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The judge’s order, which the Salt Lake Tribune and other outlets said they had confirmed with the court, gave the Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) seven days to find the year-old girl another home.
Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland were married in 2014, according to the Washington Post, and brought in a 1-year-old foster child earlier this year.
Instead, they say a judge told them there was research that indicated children who are raised in same-sex parent homes do not do as well as children who are raised by heterosexual parents.
Johansen is barred from commenting on the case.
The decision has generated widespread criticism, including from national LGBT groups and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. Utah officials and the couple filed court challenges demanding the judge rescind the order.
The women told KUTV that they underwent home inspections, background checks and interviews in order to be approved.
The couple plan to appeal the decision, the station reported.
Judge Johansen said, based on his research, it would be better for the child’s “well-being”. They are part of a group of same-sex married couples who were allowed to become foster parents in Utah after last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made gay marriage legal across the country, Sumner said.
“We’re not just going to sit back and take it”, one of the parents, Beckie Peirce, told CBS affiliate KUTV.
A 2012 study conducted at the University of Texas shows that children raised by lesbian couples are 12 times more likely to report they were touched in a sexual way by a parent or other adult, with 31 percent confirming they had been raped, as opposed to eight percent raised by biological parents. An agency spokesman stated, “We just want sharing, loving families for these kids….” “We don’t really care what that looks like”. The state’s Republican governor told reporters that he is puzzled by Judge Scott Johansen’s ruling.
The ruling triggered a heated response from The Anti-Defamation League, Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has also tweeted her support for the couple.
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“Being a good parent has nothing to do with sexual orientation thousands of families prove that”, she wrote on her Twitter account, with a link to the KUTV story. Johansen offered to remove 150 hours of community service from the girl’s sentence if the mother agreed to cut her daughter’s ponytail in court.
