The Liberty Counsel, a conservative law group, has filed an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court seeking to deny parental rights to a Sarasota lesbian.
Last month, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals issued a ruling granting parental rights to Lara Embry, who had adopted a child born to her then-partner, Kimberly Ryan, in Washington State. The couple has since split up, and Ryan is now engaged to a man and refuses to share custody with Embry. The child in question is now nine.
Embry and Ryan registered as domestic partners in Seattle. During their relationship, each gave birth to a child and agreed they would raise them together. Through adoption, both women were considered legal parents to the children under washington law.
Embry and Ryan moved to Sarasota before breaking up in 2004. They both later signed a visitation and child custody agreement recognizing joint custody of both children.
But in October 2007, Ryan sought to dissolve the agreement. Embry then sought to secure parental rights over Ryan’s biological child by filing a Petition for Declaratory Relief and a Petition to Determine Parental Responsibility, Contact and Support and Other Relief in Florida.
In May, the court of appeal found that the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires states to recognize judgments such as adoptions from other states. The court also ruled that Florida law grants parental rights to any person who obtained parental status through legal adoption in another state.
Embry’s lawyer argued that most states allow a partner in a same-sex parent family to adopt a child, and that relationship should not be voided if the couple moves to Florida. Florida is the only state that explicitly outlaws adoption by all gays and lesbians.
Attorneys for the Liberty Counsel, which provides pro bono legal assistance to defend “religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family,” said that the appeals court ruling is contrary to Florida laws prohibiting both gay marriage and adoption of children by homosexuals.
They also note that Ryan plans to wed her fiancé in the near future, and that he has expressed his wish to adopt the child.
