West Virginia Supreme Court Redefines Family
West Virginia Supreme Court Redefines Family
Tupelo, MS – The court “has once again demonstrated the lethal effects of judicial activism,” said Stephen M. Crampton, Chief Counsel for the AFA CLP.
On Friday, June 17, 2005, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals redefined what a parent is by declaring a lesbian partner the “psychological parent” of her deceased lover’s young child. In Tina B. v. Paul S., the court removed custody of the child from his maternal grandparents and gave it to the lesbian partner, Tina B..
“This court has once again demonstrated the lethal effects of judicial activism on the nuclear family, which is the cornerstone of our civilization,” said Stephen M. Crampton, Chief Counsel for the AFA Center for Law & Policy, which authored a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of two legislators in the case. “While the court pretended to limit itself to interpreting the laws passed by the legislature, in reality it made law and acted as a superlegislature,” Crampton noted.
“West Virginia’s creation of a new “˜right’ for a same-sex partner to obtain custody of her deceased lover’s child without any written agreement, a Will, or any attempt at adoption is but a stepping stone to recognition of same-sex marriage,” Crampton warned.
The case arose when Tina B. fell asleep at the wheel on the drive home from an all- night party at a gay bar in Charleston, and they crashed head-on into oncoming traffic, killing Christina S. Custody of Christina’s child, Z.B.S., was initially placed with his grandparents, a two-parent family who had successfully raised five other children. But the West Virginia Supreme Court took the child away from his grandparents and gave him to Tina B.
The child was fathered by Tina B.’s half-brother, a convicted felon who worked for Tina B. and agreed to have sex with Christina in order to provide a child for the same-sex couple.
Courtesy of AFA Center for Law and Policy – Copyright, 2005. All Rights Reserved.
RELATED INFORMATION:Opinion of West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
AFA Center for Law & Policy Friend of the Court Brief