In the midst of efforts by the religious rightwing to control our country, it's good to read news like
this from West Virginia:
The state's highest court on Friday gave custody of a 5-year-old boy to his dead mother's lesbian partner, despite the protests of the woman's blood relatives.
Tina Burch had appealed to the West Virginia Supreme Court for custody of the son of her partner, Christina Smarr, who died in a 2002 car accident. Within hours of her death, Smarr's relatives had given the child to his grandparents.
A family court gave custody to Burch, but a circuit court ruled that she didn't have the legal rights to her former partner's child.
From a legal standpoint, it is good news and I'm glad to see it. But I'm also angry. Angry that it took three years to settle what was obvious from the start. That Tina Burch was this little boy's mother.
More...
Not only did the boy's late mother consider Ms. Burch his other parent, but so did the biological father.
The majority quite clearly had the best interest of the child in mind when ruling in this case.
"Both of the child's biological parents not only acquiesced in, but actively fostered, the relationship," Justice Robin Davis wrote in the majority opinion.
The opinion said a "psychological parent" could be a biological, adoptive, foster or stepparent, as long as the parental relationship began with the consent of the legal parent or guardian.
Naturally, I expect the usual wingnut suspects (Delay, Dobson, etc.) to scream judicial activism. I hope the American people and the media remember the Shiavo fiasco when judging the merits of their claims.