Lesbian Visitation Dispute Back in PA Court

February 8, 2005

PHILADELPHIA — A lesbian mother who was denied visitation with her child after she broke up with the child's birth mother returned to court today in Philadelphia.

Represented by Lambda Legal the woman argues that a lower court was wrong to deny her visitation with the child.

Decades of well established law in Pennsylvania make it clear that visitation shouldn't be denied just because one parent alienated the child from the other parent. This case shouldn't be decided any differently simply because the child's parents are lesbians, said Alphonso David, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal who will argue the case.

We're asking the state's highest court to overturn a dangerous and misguided ruling from the lower-court that sends a troubling message and jeopardizes important parent-child relationships.

The parents in this case, identified by their initials to protect the privacy of the child, were in a long-term relationship and raised the child together for three years. After their breakup in 1996, L.R.M., the biological mother, refused to allow T.B. visits with their daughter, despite T.B.'s daily parental role in the child's life.

T.B. was declared to be the child's parent by both the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2000 and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2001. In a 5-2 ruling, the Supreme Court recognized the lesbian mother's legal standing as a parent, applying the same rules that the court has applied to other families. The court said a lesbian or gay parent may seek visitation or custody of a child, even if there is no biological or legal tie, if she or he assumed a parental status and performed parental duties over time with the consent of the legal parent.

The case was sent back down to the lower court to determine visitation and custody arrangements. In a disturbing ruling, the lower court said that the biological mother was so successful at alienating the child that it was in the child's best interest to remain separated from her other mother.

That ruling was appealed resulting in today's court hearing.

The actions of the biological mother are regrettable but that does not mean that a court should reward her for alienating the child from the other parent. Our client very much wants to be a part of her child's life and just because the biological mother objects to contact doesn't mean the alienation should be allowed to continue, said David.