A Utah judge who initially chose to take a baby away from her same-sex foster parents and place her in a home with heterosexual parents has changed his mind, after widespread criticism.
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Hoagland and Peirce are among 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 legalizing gay marriage nationwide.
The original order to remove the child from the home of the Carbon County couple drew an outcry from around the country, with former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton chiming in and even the state’s Republican governor declaring himself “puzzled” and concerned that Johansen was not following the law.
A recent ruling by a Utah judge to strip away fostership of a child from a lesbian couple has stirred up national news reaction.
Following the judge’s order given during a routine permanency hearing on Tuesday, DCFS and the child’s foster mothers were scrambling for options to contest or appeal the order before the one-week deadline.
“No, I think we’d be doing exactly what we’re doing right now”, said spokeswoman Ashley Sumner. They state that if this child was removed simply based on her foster parent’s sexual orientation, Judge Johansen violated the Utah Code of Judicial Conduct.
The juvenile court judge made the determination that the child would be better served in the home of a heterosexual couple, and mentioned but did not directly cite research that supported his decision. However, the American Psychological Association has said there’s no scientific basis that gay couples are unfit parents based on sexual orientation.
Hunnicutt says the couple is confident that they’ll be able to keep the baby.
“This is the first time there has been an attempt to deprive gay foster parents of their rights to care for an adoptive child”, said Callan.
Callan said the change suggests that the judge was anxious about his order “being viewed as an application of religious belief rather than an application of the law”. The human rights watchdog organization filed a formal complaint with the Utah Judicial Commission on November 13.
A full transcript of Johansen’s initial ruling has not been made public and may not be because court records of cases involving foster children are kept private to protect the kids.
They already are raising Peirce’s two children.
“We’ve been told to care for this child like a mother, and I am her mother”, Hoagland says in the KUTV report.
Judge Johansen is reportedly prohibited under court rules to speak about a pending case.
“We were talking about this earlier, and we’ll probably make a scrapbook so she knows how important she truly is”, Peirce said.
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The decision was made Thursday, after a meeting between representatives of the state Division of Child and Family Services and the Attorney General’s Office. The group wants a quick decision ahead of the custody hearing next month.
