Gay rights made some headway in Montana yesterday when Judge Ed McLean ruled that a lesbian can have parental rights over two children adopted by her former lover.
Though it was technically Barbara Maniaci who had adopted the tots – a boy and a girl – McLean says that Maniaci’s ex-girlfriend Michelle Kulstad deserves a say in their rearing:
“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,” McLean wrote.
Attorneys for both sides have said the same-sex parental rights trial was a first for the state, whose voters in 2004 rejected same-sex marriage by about a 2-to-1 margin.
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The judge said Kulstad must receive joint decision-making authority in the children’s lives, including their health care and spiritual upbringing.
Maniaci, who is now married, was represented by Austin R. Nimocks, a legal counsel for the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund. How far they fall!
Alan down in Florida
Congrats to the judge for doing the right thing despite his obvious lack of knowledge on the subject (“sexual preference”).