Judge removes child from lesbian parents

The West Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a lesbian couple's appeal of a lower court ruling that removed a child they had reared from birth because the judge wanted the child placed with a married opposite-sex couple. Fayette Circuit Judge Paul Blake originally agreed to allow Kathyrn Kutil and Cheryl Hess to be foster parents for the infant girl, following a positive assessment by the Department of Health and Human Resources. Court records show that the little girl was born to a drug addicted mother and the baby had had cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines in her system. Shortly after birth the baby went through drug withdrawal. The father was unknown. The Department placed the child with Kutil and Hess, who had been approved as foster parents, when it could not find any blood relatives of the mother. But nearly a year later when the couple applied to adopt the little girl both the Department and Judge Blake balked. In his ruling Blake ordered the child removed saying the baby should be permanently placed in a home where the parents would be a married opposite-sex couple. The ruling said that he had agreed to allow the women to foster the child because it was the best option at the time. But he never intended it to be permanent. "I think I've indicated time and time again, this court's opinion is that the best interest of a child is to be raised by a traditional family, mother and father," Blake's ruling said. "Now, that's this court's opinion as to what a typical West Virginian would feel and what the typical attitude is of the West Virginia Supreme Court, a traditional family." In their appeal to the state, Supreme Court the women argue that Blake exceeded his authority and violated their constitutional rights. The appeal argues that Blake is "setting a dangerous precedent" for discriminatory treatment of non-traditional families. A different judge recently approved Kutil's adoption of a 12-year-old girl whom she'd been fostering for over two years, the appeal notes. West Virginia law allows either single individuals or married couples to adopt. It says nothing about same-sex couples. In a 4-1 vote the high court agreed to take the case. Oral arguments will be held on March 11. The court had granted an emergency stay of Judge Blake's order. The little girl will be allowed to stay with the women until the Supreme Court rules.