{"id":752,"date":"2015-12-21T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T08:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/?p=752"},"modified":"2021-12-29T21:12:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T21:12:55","slug":"mothers-fighting-for-custody-of-their-two-daughters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/mothers-fighting-for-custody-of-their-two-daughters\/","title":{"rendered":"Mothers Fighting For Custody of their Two Daughters"},"content":{"rendered":"

A custody showdown between a former same-sex couple has sparked interest not only in legal circles, but also among the LGBT community. Speculation is mounting as to how the issue of custody will be resolved in the wake of same-sex marriage legalization.<\/p>\n

\"tumblr_inline_nz3v8hD6ZH1t2pr7r_1280\"<\/a>Like all custody conflicts, the one between Amber Berndt, 37, and Joy Phillips, 41, is a sad situation, because the lives of their seven and ten-year-old daughters have been upturned. The women were never legally married, but did have a commitment ceremony and spent a total of 13 years together. Unfortunately, their relationship came to an end in 2014.<\/p>\n

Berndt, the biological mother, wants to move closer to her new partner with her daughters, leaving Phillips pleading for her parental rights.<\/p>\n

Both women raised their daughters, and the legal last names of the girls are Berndt-Phillips. While this last name shows the intent that Phillips be a parent to her daughters, in the eyes of the law, it does not establish the right of parentage. Because Phillips is not biologically related to the children and could not adopt them under Michigan law, her rights to the children are unclear.<\/p>\n

LGBT project attorney, Jay Kaplan of the American Civil Liberties Union, is calling this legal battle a very important case.<\/p>\n

He told reporter Jennifer O\u2019Neill of Yahoo Parenting<\/a>, \u201cWe are going to see more of these cases in the future, because courts are going to have to deal with the effect of the Supreme Court\u2019s marriage equality decision.\u201d Kaplan went on to say, \u201cCouples who didn\u2019t get married because they couldn\u2019t shouldn\u2019t be denied the rights that same sex-married couples now have.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill writes that the women raised the girls together and continued to do so even after their break up. However, the situation changed when Berndt wanted to relocate, and Phillips petitioned the court for \u201cformalized\u201d shared custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to court records examined by\u00a0Michigan Live,\u00a0each mother claims she was the primary caregiver, that the girls called both women \u2018mom,\u2019 and that Berndt listed Phillips as the guardian of the children in her will,\u201d reported O\u2019Neill. \u201cKent County Family Court Judge Kathleen Feeney is considering the arguments, and noted at a recent hearing, \u2018I feel like Star Trek in that we\u2019re going to unknown places that have yet to be explored.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, it\u2019s a shame that Phillips could\u00a0not go through the adoption process after the children were born, as second-parent adoption was not an option\u00a0in Michigan. From a legal standpoint, adoption would have allowed her\u00a0to secure both custody and visitation.<\/p>\n

Phillips\u2019 attorney, Christine Yared, told O\u2019Neill, \u201cThis case is about securing the right of the children to have a continuing relationship with both of their parents. The children should not lose their relationship with one of their parents simply because the state they live in would not allow their parents to get married or recognize out-of-state marriages.\u201d Yared maintains that because the law prohibiting same-sex marriage in Michigan has been declared unconstitutional, the issue is not as black-and-white as Berndt\u2019s attorney believes it is, and that Phillips\u2019 claim to motherhood should not be easily dismissed.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope the court\u2019s decision is in the best interest of these children, and that they are able to maintain relationships with both of the women who\u2019ve raised them since birth.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A custody showdown betwee [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[52,150,197],"class_list":["post-752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbt","category-uncategorized","tag-custody","tag-michigan","tag-same-sex"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}