What Happens to the Kids When We “Divorce?”
December 12,2006: Although LGBT people have more stable relationships than their straight counterparts (50% divorce rate, anyone?) we do break up. When there are children involved, what do we do? It’s a problem that an increasing number of courts are trying to solve. This is from the Star Tribune of Minn/St. Paul:
Marilyn Johnson and Nancy SooHoo, like a growing number of gay and lesbian couples in Minnesota, became parents through international adoptions a decade ago.
Now separated, they are embroiled in a child-visitation dispute that has reached the Minnesota Supreme Court. The court’s decision could set a precedent in a new frontier in family law: determining the future visitation rights of nontraditional parents.
Listen, all kinds of things happen in relationships, but I really do think there’s something to the old style of couples that stayed together for the sake of the kids. As one observer in this case notes “Adoptive children, in particular, often have a subliminal fear of abandonment, and this long legal battle has been a strain. This is a case that has broken my heart. These children deserve more.”