April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce, a married lesbian couple in Utah, had been the foster parents of a baby girl for three months. Judge Scott Johansen made an order to take the child from them as the judge believed this child will do better in the world if a heterosexual couple raised her. According to an article in Raw Story, “The ruling came during a routine hearing for Hoagland and Peirce. They are part of a group of same-sex married couples who were allowed to become foster parents in Utah after the recent US supreme court ruling that made gay marriage legal across the country, said a spokeswoman for the state’s family services agency, Ashley Sumner.”
The judge’s decision was based on the couple being lesbians. Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services are fighting the decision. The agency was not aware of any issues with their parenting. The went on to say that the judge went against their recommendations that the baby should stay with couple. No evidence exists to show that same sex parents make worse parents than heterosexual parents.
Source:
Alan Yuhas, The Guardian “Utah Authorities Fight Judge’s Order to Remove Baby From Lesbian Foster Parents,” Raw Story, November 13, 2015, http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/utah-authorities-fight-judges-order-to-remove-baby-from-lesbian-foster-parents/
Student Researcher: Julia Theiss, Indian River State College
Faculty Evaluator: Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D., Indian River State College