Austin Nimocks #fundie

Austin Nimocks #fundie onenewsnow.com

For ten years, two women lived together in a lesbian relationship, during which one of them -- Barbara Maniaci -- solely adopted two children. But in 2006, Maniaci left her roommate and the homosexual lifestyle, and later married a man. Following the break-up, the former roommate sued for -- and now has won -- parental rights.

Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, tells OneNewsNow that Montana's highest court decided to uphold the demands of a legal stranger.

"What the Montana Supreme Court did was give a third party -- the parent's former roommate and girlfriend -- parental rights...," says the attorney. "And it runs contrary to clear precedent dating back several years in Montana and the United States Supreme Court. [It's] a very, very disturbing decision."

He says that historically courts have upheld the rights of "fit natural" parents. "When we undermine the rights of fit natural parents, it causes harm to families and children," argues Nimocks. "Giving strangers and third parties access to kids is not in the best interest of children or families."

28 comments

old comment by Equalist

Honestly, I can kind of see what this one is about, and I can see the problem with it. It's about someone with no legal rights to the children, and no legal connection to the children (not the adoptive, biological, or otherwise parent) being given parental rights. Child custody and parental rights cases are a nightmare in general without adding third parties to the mix. I know a large number of lawyers who refuse to take divorce cases or cases dealing with children and parents rights in general because they don't want to deal with working out the custody arrangements. Seriously, this opens the door to a number of issues. In a divorce situation with roommates involved, I know this is leaning towards a slippery slope a bit, but bear with me. You've got mother and father to the children, mother and father split up, then you've got mother's and father's new roommate, not even a relationship, but someone to help with the bills. What this case does, is open it up that when mother and father get remarried to stepmom and stepdad, you've now got the children being pulled in too many directions at once. Mother's and father's roommate are, according to this case, now eligible for parental rights as well, now having not only mother, father, stepmother, and stepfather fighting over the children in case of additional divorce, but mother's and father's roommates added to the mix as well. Maybe I'm sliding down the slippery slope here, but honestly I see this just adding more nightmare to the already difficult family court system.

old comment by Equalist

All of the comments about the roommate being considered a stranger. It's not that she's considered a stranger, so much as she legally, on paper, has no relationship to the children, making her a legal stranger. Basically, from the sound of this, though I may be wrong, it looks like the mother who adopted didn't put in place any safeguards to ensure that her partner would have at least partial rights to the children first, which had that been the case I would be right along side the rest of you, but if there was no establishment of rights at all, nothing put on paper at all, I can see getting outraged that the partner was given parental rights to the children.

old comment by Caretaker

The partner (please, Equalist, stop referring to her as a 'roommate' - it's obvious she was more than that) spent ten years raising those children. There were clearly no legal options for her to be provided with; as many have said, legalising gay marriage would change that.

The problem is, when Maniaci got married, her husband became the stranger. He is the alleged roommate. He did not raise those children for a decade. He was not there when they were adopted. He's the damn stranger.

The courts ruled in favour of the partner, rather than the other mother and the new stepdad. This woman was not a stranger. She's presumably the best choice to raise the children. It's not all about who is written down on a legal document; it's about what's best for the kids.

The only thing this story proves is that partners in gay relationships should be given legal parental rights to match the other's. There is nothing here about strangers or roommates, other than what FundieNewsNow has oh so unbiasedly claimed.

And, to sum up: the only third party in this case is Maniaci's husband.

Mother's and father's roommate are, according to this case, now eligible for parental rights as well

The woman awarded custody raised those kids equally for a decade. She is not a fucking roommate. She is a parent.