When parents go to court to argue a family law issue, it is commonly a very emotional process. A court’s decision means the difference between a parent gaining custody over his or her children or not. There is a lot on the line, and when a ruling goes against a parent’s wishes, it is not surprising that he or she would be upset.
In the case of a Houston father, he is seemingly more than upset. He doesn’t believe he was given a fair trial in regards to his child custody request. A court ruled against the father’s request to get full custody of his and his ex-wife’s three children. The disappointed father believes the judge’s decision was clouded by suspected “homophobic” beliefs.
According to local news reports, the father was married to a woman for several years, but they divorced in 2004, a while after the father identified himself as homosexual. Since the Texas divorce, the father found a same-sex partner, whom he married in Connecticut. (Gay marriage is not recognized in Texas.) The two of them want to live as a family with full custody of the three children involved.
The judge ruled that along with the father not getting full custody of his kids, his children cannot be left alone with any person to whom they are not related by blood or adoption. The father believes the latter part of the ruling is the judge’s bias against homosexuality, as the decision would limit his partner’s contact with the kids.
The father and his partner will reportedly appeal the family law decision to a higher court. In all family law cases involving children, it is standard for the central focus of any decision to be the well-being of the kids. We only have limited details of this case and are not in a position to assume that either the father or the judge in this case is right. We can hope, however, that whatever the final decision is, the kids will land in a loving home.
Source
ktrk-tv: “Gay couple to fight judge’s child custody ruling,” Adela Uchida, Sep. 9, 2011
