A Montana judge
Monday granted a woman joint custody of two children she
and her former lesbian partner adopted when they were a
couple. Michelle Kulstad sought joint custody of her
8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter after she and
former partner Barbara Maniaci split up in 2006,
according to the Associated Press. Maniaci has since married
and man and sought sole custody.
A Montana judge
Monday granted a woman joint custody of two children she
and her former lesbian partner adopted when they were a
couple. Michelle Kulstad sought joint custody of her
8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter after she and
former partner Barbara Maniaci split up in 2006,
according to the Associated Press. Maniaci has since married
and man and sought sole custody.
"To discriminate
further against Ms. Kulstad because of her sexual
preference in this day and age is no different than telling
a person to go to the back of the bus because of her
skin color," district judge Ed McLean wrote.
Kulstad and
Maniaci lived together for 10 years before breaking up in
2006. In that time, they adopted two children -- a boy in
2004 and a girl in 2006.
Maniaci, who is
now married to a man, says she and her husband should
raise the children as they see fit because Kulstad was
neither an adoptive parent nor a biological relative.
She was represented by an attorney from the
conservative Alliance Defense Fund.
Montana law does
not address adoption by same-sex couples but allows
stepparents (legal or assumed) to adopt children.
"By acknowledging
Kulstad as a parent, the court today recognized that
it would be both cruel and against established Montana law
for her children to be denied the parental love and
support Kulstad has shown them since they entered her
home," Kulstad’s attorney Susan Ridgeway said
in a press release.
Sixty-three
percent of Montana voters approved a ban on same-sex
marriage in 2004. (Michelle Garcia, The
Advocate)
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