In the Child's Best Interests

An Ohio appeals court ruled that lesbian mother Denise Fairchild should never have been able to attack the validity of the shared custody agreement she made with her former partner Therese Leach.

Fairchild and Leach filed for joint custody of their son in 2001, after they both parented him since his birth in 1996. When the couple split up, Fairchild tried to keep Leach from seeing their son, arguing that Ohio's 2004 antigay constitutional amendment banning marriage between same-sex couples invalidated their agreement. The appeals court ruled, however, that the joint custody agreement was protected from such a tactic, and treated Fairchild's request as improper under the law.

Lambda Legal has represented Therese Leach through two prior victories at the trial court level where the court ruled that the amendment doesn't affect the custodial rights of non-biological parents.