Lesbian denied parental rights in Kentucky

A parents rights organization complains:

A recent appellate court decision in Kentucky casts doubt on the future of parental rights for unmarried same-sex partners.

Teri Whitehouse and Tammie Delaney were partners. The mutually agreed that Delaney would become pregnant via a sperm donor.

In her Circuit Court ruling, Judge McDonald had found that Teri Whitehouse and Tammie Delaney were in a romantic relationship and both fully participated in the decision to have a child, jointly chose a sperm donor, and held themselves out to the public as the child’s parents. The women had a commitment ceremony after the birth of the child, who referred to Whitehouse as “Momma.”

So Delaney was biologically related to the child, but Whitehouse was not. On that slender reed, Whitehouse was ruled to have no parental rights to custody or parenting time.

Slender reed? We have well-recognized legal processes for marriage and adoption.

Parents should have the rights and responsibilities over their kids. A parents rights organization should recognize that. A lesbian co-habitant is a not a parent unless she did an adoption.

That organization does a good job of promoting shared parenting, and I applaud them for that, but it appears that I do not agree with their underlying reasoning. They appear to rely too much on what the state believes is good for the child.

Some states have common law marriage, where you are legally married if you act as if you are married. Not as many states as there used to be. No states have common law adoption, as far as I know.

The leftist and LGBTQIA authoritarians are disrupting family law to the point where judges and social workers will have the power to dole out parental rights and responsibilities as they see fit. Kentucky will be considered backward for being slower than big states to adopt the trends.

After all, plenty of people – adoptive parents, stepparents - who raise kids don’t have a biological relationship to them. ...

The child in the Delaney-Whiteside case called Whiteside “Momma,” doubtless because she saw her that way. That the appellate court disagrees shouldn’t be what decides the child’s ability to maintain a relationship with the woman she considers one of her parents.

The child may call the nanny "Momma", but that should not nullify the rights of the legal parent.

There is a leftist plot to destroy the family. Same-sex marriage was just one step in the process.