lifeonq.com

Georgia Lesbian Mom Wins Appeal, Will Not Be Jailed

The Amercian Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced yesterday that the Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of one lesbian mom, who had volunteered to adopt and care for a seven-year-old girl, at the request of (and with the permission of) the girl’s biological mother. Elizabeth Hadaway was convicted of criminal contempt of court in 2007 for not handing her daughter over to foster care after she lost custody solely because she’s a lesbian. A year and one day after a county court judge sentenced Hadaway to 10 days in jail, the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned her contempt conviction, which had been staid pending appeal, yesterday. The ACLU represented Hardaway in the appeal and secured the little girl’s return home from foster care last May.”Just yesterday I was watching Emma hunt for Easter eggs and thinking how the possibility of going to jail and being separated from her again made it hard to just enjoy the moment,” Hadaway said in an ACLU press release. “I’m just so grateful that the court has lifted this burden so we can move on and I can keep focused on making sure Emma has a happy home and a good life.”

Hadaway’s legal problems began in 2006, when a Wilkinson County Superior Court judge was on the verge of granting her request to permanently adopt Emma when he noticed in a home study that Hadaway was living with her female partner of seven years. The judge abruptly changed his mind solely because Hadaway is a lesbian. Although Emma’s biological mother told the court that she wanted the child to be raised and adopted by Hadaway, the judge denied the adoption and ordered that Emma be sent back to her biological mother. Hadaway met with the biological mother, who is a truck driver struggling to care for her daughter, at a truck stop to hand over the girl. After accepting custody, thus satisfying the court order, the biological mother saw how distraught Emma was at being taken from Hadaway and again insisted that Hadaway should raise the girl. Because Hadaway took Emma back, the Wilkinson County judge then ordered that Emma be sent to live in a foster home and sentenced Hadaway and her attorney to 10 days in jail for contempt of court. Wilkinson County is in middle Georgia, between Macon and Milledgeville.

Emma was eventually returned to Hadaway’s care last May after an expert commissioned by Wilkinson County Department of Children and Family Services found that the little girl was experiencing emotional trauma because of the separation from Hadaway. A judge in another Georgia county then granted Hadaway permanent custody. The Department of Family and Children Services let Emma return home. The ACLU describes the three months of foster care as an experience in which Emma’s “welfare was seriously compromised.”

“We’re pleased that the court has agreed with us that Elizabeth Hadaway shouldn’t do jail time simply for doing the right thing for her child, but it’s unfortunate that it’s taken almost two years of court proceedings to end up with things where Elizabeth, Emma, and Emma’s biological mom wanted them to be in the first place,” said Debbie Seagraves, Executive Director of the ACLU of Georgia. “Elizabeth Hadaway did everything the judge ordered her to do, and she should never have been punished.”

“None of this would have ever happened if the trial court had recognized this child’s needs and not been swayed by misguided beliefs about gay people,” said Ken Choe, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s national Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project. “No child should fear being torn away from home just because his or her parents happen to be gay.”

It’s unfortunate that one judge’s personal biases resulted in trauma and turmoil in the life of Emma and her adopted mother. Isn’t that what Republicans call an “activist judge?”

More information on the case can be found on the ACLU’s Website at www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/29566res20070502.html.