Vermont Court: Vermont's Ruling of Joint Custody By Lesbians Trumps Virginia's Anti-Gay Laws

From the Burlington Free Press (Vermont, we're tiny but feisty!):

The Vermont Supreme Court said today that Vermont courts, and not those in Virginia, have exclusive jurisdiction over an emotional case between two women arguing custody over a child they had while they were in a lesbian relationship.

The unanimous ruling in Vermont conflicts with a series of decisions in Virginia courts, which held that that state’s anti-gay marriage laws controlled the case. Vermont Justice John Dooley wrote, though, that it’s Vermont’s laws that control because the women involved in the dispute were legally joined in a civil union in 2000 and that’s what governs their 2003 separation and subsequent child custody disagreement.

Vermont became the first state in the nation to recognize same-sex couples’ relationships in 2000, enacting a civil union law that mimics marriage. Only one other state has such a law and whether such relationships would be recognized in other states has been a matter of litigation.

“This is a straightforward interstate jurisdictional dispute over custody, and the governing law fully supports the Vermont court’s decision to exercise jurisdiction and refuse to follow the conflicting Virginia visitation order,” Dooley wrote.