News

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

VIRGINIA, September 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lisa Miller, the woman who has been struggling to keep her daughter from the custody of a lesbian who has no relation to the child, is asking for prayers for her next hearing, which is scheduled for September 4 in Vermont as a telephone “status conference.” 
 
Judge William D. Cohen, who has repeatedly ordered Miller to surrender her child to lesbian Janet Jenkins, may transfer custody to Jenkins at the hearing, according to Miller.

“Please keep in prayer the upcoming Sept. 4th hearing which is when Judge Cohen in Vermont will decide via a status conference—not a hearing—as to whether he will transfer custody of Isabella from me to Janet,” writes Miller.  “He made it very clear that he would most likely rule in favor of Janet Jenkins' request. God is mightier than man!”

Miller has been repeatedly threatened with imprisonment for refusing to turn over her daughter to Jenkins, who was once her lesbian sexual partner.  Janet Miller conceived Isabella by artificial insemination while she was in a “civil union” with Jenkins in Vermont, and although the state has no law assigning parental rights to spouses or civil union partners in such cases, Cohen has granted equal parental status to Jenkins.

Following the breakup, Miller returned to the Protestant faith of her childhood and has repudiated lesbianism.  She says she decided to fight the visitation orders after Isabella complained of being forced to bathe naked with Jenkins, and said that she wanted to die.

In a hearing held last week in Virginia, where Lisa Miller currently resides with her daughter, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Miller should be both fined and imprisoned for refusing to share custody with Jenkins.  However, the court ruled against both motions, and agreed with Miller's attorneys that the case should be moved to Bedford County, where she currently resides.

“I am so grateful and thankful to God that I am home with Isabella instead of in a jail cell,” Miller wrote to supporters following the hearing. “He knows what is best for us and my prayer (and one I ask you to pray for me as well) is that Isabella remains with me so I can bring her up in Christ and that God will preserve our family as well l as preserve me as her mom so that I can teach her the ways of the Lord.”

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

Contact Information:

Judge William D. Cohen
RUTLAND SUPERIOR COURT
83 Center Street, Suite 3 o Rutland, VT 05701 o
(802) 775-4394