What Is Best for Children

The Michigan State Court of Appeals has held that a family court cannot refuse to hear a child custody case simply because it involves children whose parents are lesbians, recognizing that there is no gay exception to Michigan's child custody laws.

Diane Giancaspro and Lisa Ann Congleton adopted three children together in Illinois before moving as a family to Michigan. In August 2007 when the couple ended their relationship, Giancaspro filed papers asking a Michigan trial court to determine custody of the children. Congleton moved to dismiss the case, saying that the adoption was invalid under the Michigan Child Custody Act and citing the state's antigay constitutional amendment. The Michigan trial court granted Congleton's motion rendering both parties' parental rights unenforceable in the state.

The ruling called into question whether the children were legal orphans in Michigan, impeding essential things as authorizing medical treatment at a public hospital, enrolling the children in school or recovering a lost child from a local police department; the children no longer had an enforceable legal connection to either parent.

In March 2008, Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Michigan successfully urged the Michigan Court of Appeals to reverse the trial court's ruling, arguing that it violated the Full Faith and Credit Clause — a law that protects the validity of judicial decrees across state lines. We also pointed out that Michigan's antigay amendment limiting marriage pertains only to adult relationships and has no bearing on custody cases.

According to the court's majority opinion, "The only relevant consideration in this matter is each individual party's established relationship as an adoptive parent with the children, not their relationship with each other."

The case is Giancaspro v. Congleton.