2 Lesbians Win Custody Battle

SEATTLE, Wash.

Two mothers, both self-avowed

Lesbians and fundamentalist Christians, have been awardon the condition that they no

ed custody of their children longer live together.

"You can continue the relationship, even care for each other's children," said Superior Court Judge James A. Noe, "but live separately."

So Sandra Schuster and her two sons and Madeline Isaacson and her four children spent läst weekend moving out of the five-bedroom house they occupied almost a year while the women were awaiting the outcome of their divorces and a custody fight.

..

Close ties were cited as the primary reason for the unusual custody award. Nancy Kaplan, a court-appointed social worker, described the living arrangements as "a most happy, well-organized, creative family."

And a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. S. Harvard Kaufman, said his investigation had established that “the children certainly are getting good physical and emotional care... They show no identification problems.

Noe refused to discuss the case in detail. He did say he considered each mother the better parent.

Noe made his decision last December, and the women have new relocated their families about a block apart. "The two women say they met in church after both had

been married about nine years.

"We felt so much closer to each other in cur religious beliefs than we did to our husbands," Ms. Schuster said.

"Neither of them were really active in the church

the family, for that matter."

Both women are Pentecostalists.

or in

"We don't think they're missing anything by not having a male image around the house," said Mrs. Schuster. "An image is just that, a fleeting reflection in a mirror.. "Kids need parents with a stable, loving relationship, people they can depend on.

"I don't care whether they're gay or straight or green or yellow, as long as they're happy and love God.”