Ohio Court Says Custody Agreement Stands Between Lesbian Moms: Lambda Legal Lauds Decision

(Franklin County, Ohio, January 25, 2007) — In a 12 page decision, Judge Carol Squire ruled that a custody arrangement between two lesbian parents is valid despite Ohio’s antigay constitutional amendment.

“The custody arrangement is valid because it is based on settled Ohio law going back more than 100 years,” said Camilla Taylor, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago. “The court recognized what we have maintained all along, the antigay constitutional amendment at issue pertains to relationships between two adults—not the relationship between a parent and her child.”

Lambda Legal represents Therese Fairchild in her fight to enforce a court-approved joint custody agreement signed by both her and her former partner, Denise Fairchild, in 2001. After their son was born in 1996 both women parented him. In order to ensure that Therese had a protected legal relationship with the child, the two women signed a joint custody agreement. Such agreements were expressly approved by the Ohio Supreme Court in the 2001 In re Bonfield case, in which Lambda Legal participated. Since the couple split, Denise Fairchild has refused Therese contact with their son and used the constitutional amendment banning marriage between same-sex couples, which passed in November 2004, to argue that the custody agreement is invalid.

Lambda Legal is co-counsel on this case with Thomas Schmidt of Gahanna, Ohio.

The case is In Re: Fairchild.

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Jackie Yodashkin 212-809-8585 ext.229

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.