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Estranged Couple Disputes Access to Co-Parented Child Mother Maneuvers Legally to deny Temporary Visits |
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Compiled By GayToday
Washington, D.C.—November 15-- The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday let stand
a ruling that a lesbian who'd helped her partner raise a child is entitled to
temporary visitation rights, though the couple separated in May, 1998.
Without comment, the high court rejected an appeal by the child's biological mother who sought to deny her former partner access to their boy. It left intact the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts' ruling that the woman's partner must be given three hours per week visitation rights. The two women – whose initials in court papers were L.M.M. and E.N.O.--met in 1984. After making a decision to be artificially inseminated L.M.M. gave birth in 1995 in Washington, D.C. to a son. The couple reportedly sent out birth announcements linking their names to create the boy's last name.
The visitation order could someday be changed, however, or set aside altogether after a trial on the merits in the case, according to the Massachusetts decision. The Supreme Court's refusal of the case, though a significant development, leaves open the possibility of such a change. |
