Utah family agency seeks to keep foster child with lesbian couple
By Peg McEntee
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Utah's child welfare agency on Thursday urged a juvenile court judge to reverse a controversial decision ordering a married lesbian couple to relinquish custody of their infant foster daughter because of their sexual orientation.
The couple have cared for the 9-month-old girl since August, but during a hearing on Tuesday the judge ordered the state Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) to remove the baby from the couple's home and find new foster parents within seven days, the agency said.
"The juvenile court judge made the determination that the child would be better served in the home of a heterosexual couple, and mentioned, but did not directly cite, research that supported his decision," DCFS said in a statement.
"It is our position that this removal is not in the best interest of the child," the agency added.
News of the ruling by Judge Scott Johansen of the Seventh District Court, in east-central Utah, has sparked an outcry from gay rights and civil liberties advocates.
"There is a clear scientific consensus that children of same-sex parents fare no differently than their peers. Claims to the contrary have been consistently rejected by the courts," said Karen McCreary, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.
Even Republican Governor Gary Herbert, who had fought same-sex marriage in his state until the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June legalizing gay matrimony nationwide, said he was "puzzled" by the judge's order.
"I expect the court and the judge to follow the law. He may not like the law, but he should follow the law," Herbert said on Thursday during a monthly news conference in Salt Lake City. "We don't want to have activism on the bench in any way, shape or form."
The Utah attorney general's office said on Thursday it was reviewing Johansen's order but declined to discuss it further. Johansen could not be reached for comment.
The couple, Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland, said through their Salt Lake City-based lawyer, Jim Hunnicutt, that they would fight to keep the child, who they want to adopt.
"We've filed paperwork in the case to try to correct the judge's mistake," Hunnicutt told Reuters.
"He acted in an unconstitutional and inappropriate way, against Utah and federal laws that make it clear that a judge cannot hold it against someone just because of their sexual orientation."
The child welfare agency said it had filed its own motion for the judge to reconsider and would petition an appeals court to intervene unless Johansen vacated his order.
The couple, licensed as foster parents this year, have been caring for the infant while the biological mother, who has asked them to adopt the child, goes through proceedings terminating her own parental rights, media have reported.
Peirce, 34, and Hoagland, 38, already are parents to Peirce's 12- and 14-year-old biological children, according to the Salt Lake Tribune and other media outlets.
DCFS director Brent Platt told the Tribune nothing in Utah law prohibited a legally married couple from serving as foster parents, and that no other state judge had expressed concerns about placing foster children with same-sex parents.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman from Los Angeles; Editing by Andrew Hay)
