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Mother to Face Contempt Charges for Refusing Custody of Daughter to Former Lesbian Lover

Christian ex-lesbian could face total loss of custody or jail time for defying visitation order

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

October 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lisa Miller, a former lesbian who rejected the homosexual lifestyle and returned to her belief in Christ, will face contempt of court charges today for refusing to give unsupervised visitation of her daughter to her former lesbian partner.

Miller, 40, told LifeSiteNews in a extensive recent interview that her six year old daughter, Isabella, has said that she would like to kill herself following an unsupervised visit, and has complained of being forced to bathe naked with 44-year-old Janet Jenkins, according to Miller (see interview at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102707.html).  Her Vermont attorney, Steven Crampton, reportedly plans to present sworn testimony of evidence of abuse during today’s hearing.

Vermont courts have awarded liberal visitation rights to Jenkins, despite the fact that she has no biological nor adoptive relationship with Isabella.  Lisa Miller conceived Isabella through artificial insemination and says that Jenkins took little interest in the conception and pregnancy.  The two were joined in a “civil union” under Vermont law.

If Miller is found in contempt of court, she could be imprisoned on the spot, and could face a steep fine.  The judge could also choose to transfer full custody to Jenkins.  Miller has already paid a $10,000 fine for refusing further visitation to Jenkins.

According to Miller’s attorney in Virginia, Rena Lindevaldsen, Vermont law makes no provisions for parental status in the case of a spouse conceiving by artificial insemination, even in marriages and other unions between heterosexuals.  However, a Vermont judge decided to fill the vacuum by declaring that parental rights were automatically conferred.

The judge “said there was no law and he created law to decide who is a parent ... he said the legislature hasn’t passed a law, I don’t know what to do, so he created a new law and applied it to this child who had been born two years earlier,” Lindevaldsen told LifeSiteNews.

Although Virginia law clearly rejects any and all rights and claims stemming from homosexual “marriage” and “civil union” arrangements in other states, Virginia judges have repeatedly upheld the decisions of the Vermont courts. 

The case has also been appealed to the Supreme Court twice, but the court has refused a hearing for Miller.

However, despite the enormous opposition she faces from the court systems of Vermont and Virginia, Miller says that she continues to trust God. 

“I believe that God is in control and I believe that anything that is going to happen – He is going to allow it,” she told LifeSiteNews.  “I don’t have any fear.  I feel at peace that God is with me.  He has protected me and Isabella for the last five years and I believe that He is going to continue to do that.”

** See the EXCLUSIVE LIFESITENEWS INTERVIEW with Lisa Miller*** at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102707.html

To learn more about Lisa and Isabella’s story, go to: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81022155363

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