Utah Judge, in Shift, Lets Lesbian Couple Keep Foster Child

[jpak]

Source: New York Times

A Utah judge on Friday reversed his order to take a foster child away from a same-sex couple because of their sexual orientation, state officials said.

The judge, Scott N. Johansen of Juvenile Court, had issued an order on Tuesday saying that the child, a 9-month-old girl, had to be removed from the home of a lesbian couple by the end of the day next Tuesday, and placed with a heterosexual couple.

The foster parents, Rebecca A. Peirce, 34, and April M. Hoagland, 38, and the state Division of Child and Family Services, both filed motions Thursday asking the judge to reconsider, and said they were prepared to appeal his decision. The couple, who are married, lives in Price, southwest of Salt Lake City.

The clash is the first of its kind, said Ashley Sumner, a spokeswoman for the state agency, because Utah only recently began approving foster child placements with same-sex couples, after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gay marriage in June.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/14/us/utah-lesbian-couple-foster-child-ruling.html?_r=0

[niyad]

1. now remove this git from the bench, and revisit all his rulings.

[charliea]

2. Sounds Right!

But it's Utah. <*sigh*>

[The CCC]

3. now remove this git from the bench, and revisit all his rulings.

So let's remove all judges from the bench, and revisit all their rulings because?

[hollysmom]

4. this is not the first time this particular judge

has gone off the rails, he is rated very low by other judges and has been reversed many times. But I don't know what a git is. so insults not needed, just get rid of incompetence, you know like Thomas and Scalia.

[RKP5637]

7. K&R !!! n/t

[shenmue]

13. Git=an idiot

British slang.

[passiveporcupine]

9. Because?

If you don't understand why a judge is maybe not qualified to make judgement calls like this after it has been deemed acceptable for foster parents to be "gay" by Utah, and because of the supreme courts ruling on same sex marriage...then I don't think there is any way to explain this to you.

If he made this wrong call, how many wrong calls in the past has he made on his bigotry?

The hyperbole is a bit much. Remove "All" judges? No, just the bigoted ones that make bad judgement calls based on their bigotry.

[hollysmom]

14. actually I believe he had been reversed because he used his religion instead of law in previous

cases

[shenmue]

12. Legal rights are for all people. Period.

If this judge wants to throw in his personal prejudice to every ruling, he is not fit to be a judge.

[niyad]

15. quite a reach there.

[question everything]

5. Welcome, judge Johansen, to the second decade of the 21st Century (nt)

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Trust, but verify

I'm willing to forget this ever happened as long as Judge Johansen doesn't issue a similarly bird-brained ruling in the future.

[Eugene]

8. This was only a half step. He stayed the order. He didn't reverse it.

Source: Washington Post

Utah judge stays order to remove foster child from home of lesbian couple

By Sandhya Somashekhar November 13 at 2:21 PM

A Utah judge has put a hold on his order to remove a foster child from the home of a married lesbian couple, whom he had said were unfit to keep the girl because of their sexual orientation.

Judge Scott N. Johansen, a juvenile court justice in eastern Utah, struck language from his original order requiring that the 9-month-old be removed from the home within a week “in favor of a heterosexual foster adoptive placement.” He has set a hearing for Dec. 4 to determine the best interests of the child.

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In his revised order, Johansen struck language that cited the court’s “belief” that same-sex marriages are less stable than heterosexual ones, and that children of such relationships have emotional problems. But it still cites the court’s “concern that research has shown that children are more emotionally and mentally stable when raised by a mother and a father in the same home.”

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/11/13/utah-judge-stays-order-to-remove-foster-child-from-home-of-lesbian-couple/

[yardwork]

10. Hi Eugene!

Thanks for posting this.

[StevieM]

11. I am skeptical of how true it is that the so-called birth mother wants to give her child up.

First of all, shame on the NY Times for calling her a birth mother when, as of now, she is still the legal mother.

Second, they say that she "verbally agreed" to give up all rights. That makes no sense. Why don't they have anything in writing. It sounds to me like she is being bullied.

Third, people line up around the block for an infant. I cannot imagine that this child would not already be adopted if it was truly the mother's desire.

Fourth, just because the baby's father is in jail that doesn't mean that he has no right to be considered her father and to maintain his parental rights.

Fifth, what about the baby's extended family? I am hard-pressed to believe that none of them were interested in custody.

Sixth, I don't take the state's word for it that the girl was abused. What kind of abuse? What evidence do they have? It sounds to me like the state is claiming she was abused in order to bully the mother into relinquishing and accepting a closed adoption. Utah is ruthless towards single mothers and I don't trust them for a second.

When an baby is in foster care it is often because the state has decided that they really want an adoption. The words that they have attributed to the mother are probably words that they shoved down her throat or misattributed to her. The fact that they rushed to include the word "voluntary" in their description of their planned TPR makes me very suspicious.

Finally, let me make it clear that I have no problem with gay and lesbian foster parents and I agree that the child should not have been taken from them, unless it was to reunite her with her mother.

I hope that this couple, now that they have the child back, will do the right thing. I hope they make certain that this is truly what the mother wants, and that no coercion took place. And I also hope that they take the child to the prison so that her father can see her. And they should definitely reach out to the parents' extended families.