GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

January 16, 2009

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Justices won't expand Ohio marriage ban amendment

High court turns away challenge to former partners' child custody pact

by Eric Resnick

Columbus-After ruling two years ago that the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages applies only to those and civil unions, the Ohio Supreme Court last week turned away an attempt to use the measure to void a child custody agreement.

The court declined to hear an appeal of a lower court decision upholding the agreement, between former partners Denise Marie Fairchild and Therese Marie Fairchild, now Therese Marie Leach.

The women split up in 2001 after nine years together, and five years after Denise Fairchild gave birth to a son, now 13, by artificial insemination from an anonymous donor.

Six months before they broke up, the couple signed a joint parenting plan for their child, whom they were raising together.

But almost immediately after voters approved the ban amendment in 2004, Denise Fairchild asked a Franklin County

court to void the agreement. It declined, and since then courts have ruled against her at every level, on nearly every point of law.

These now include the state's highest court which, as Chief Justice Thomas Moyer wrote on January 5, "dismisses the appeal as not involving any substantial constitutional question."

The justices let stand last year's ruling by the Tenth Ohio District Court of Appeals in Columbus that upheld the parenting agreement.

That court also agreed with the Franklin County court that the case was covered by Title 21 of Ohio law, which allows the court to decide custody matters between a biological parent and a non-biological parent.

Fairchild and her attorneys Keith Golden and Adam Karl of Columbus had tried to convince the courts that custody matters belong under Title 31, which is about marriage and divorce. They argued that the court "has never addressed the legality, constitutionality and public

Inaugural train

Continued from page 1

Congress, but "when it happens to you, that just amplifies the commitment, so for me that really propelled a lot of my work on the campaign, and there were some folks pretty high up on the campaign who knew that was a factor in all the work I did."

It will be a hectic weekend for the couple, starting with an early flight on Friday, January 16 to Philadelphia, where all of the sixteen chosen and their families will board the train the next morning. The "inauguration express" will then stop in Wilmington, Delaware to pick up

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Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family, go on to Baltimore, Maryland, and end up in Washington, D.C.

On Sunday, the sixteen guests will participate in the inauguration's kick-off event at the Lincoln Memorial, which will include an invocation by Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire whose ordination triggered an exodus of far-right congregations from the American branch of the Anglican Communion.

Robinson's inclusion is seen as a counter to Rev. Rick Warren, an evangelical who will be giving the invocation at the inauguration itself. Warren has

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policy matters of the [parenting agreement] in light of [the marriage ban amendment.]"

It is this premise that the Supreme Court rejected last week. By doing so, the justices affirmed their narrow interpretation of the ban amendment in the August 2007 Carswell decision, which said the measure has no effect on domestic violence laws.

In Carswell, Moyer wrote: "The second sentence of the amendment means the state cannot create or recognize a legal status for unmarried persons that bears all of the attributes of marriage-a marriage substitute."

The key word is all of the attributes, not some of them.

Moyer reinforced this a couple of paragraphs later, saying, "It is clear that the purpose of Issue 1 [the amendment] was to prevent the state, either through legislative, executive, or judicial action, from creating or recognizing a legal status deemed to be the equivalent of a marriage of a man and a woman."

spoken in favor of "conversion therapy" and other anti-gay beliefs, and while he works against AIDS in Africa, his allies there rely on abstinence-only education and have burned condoms.

Robinson's invocation will be followed by an inaugural concert, which will be shown on cable network HBO. The station will allow cable subscribers who don't pay for their service to watch the concert, including Robinson's prayer, for free.

Among the other performers at the concert will be the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C.

On January 19, the Obamas, Bidens and the sixteen families will participate in the National Day of Service that coincides with the commemoration of Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday.

The trip will wrap up with the inauguration itself, then a jaunt to view the parade, which will include a contingent

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Moyer's example of what the court considers a "marriage substitute" is a civil union.

The Carswell decision cleared the way for cities to create domestic partner registries such as the one in Cleveland, which is being challenged by a group claiming, incorrectly, that it violates the amendment. It also allows state universities to offer domestic partner benefits to employee's, for unmarried partners to be convicted under domestic violence laws, and now, unquestionably, for unmarried couples to settle matters of custody and parenting without interference from the amendment.

Leach is represented by Columbus attorneys LeeAnn M. Massucci, who is lesbian, Thomas Schmidt of Gahanna, and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Lambda's Camilla Taylor briefed the court and argued the case in the Tenth District. The National Center for Lesbian Rights also filed an amicus brief supporting Leach.

from the Lesbian and Gay Band Association, including members of three Ohio groups: the Blazing River Freedom Band, the Capital Pride Band of Columbus and the Queen City Rainbow Band.

The families will then attend an inaugural ball, for which Hazirjian selected a classic.

"We both have black dresses and, not being a fashinista, that's about as much as I can tell you about them," she laughed, before delivering her punch line, "Black gowns, classic, elegant, sexy."

Back in Cleveland, Hazirjian's influence and the dedication of the other campaign volunteers will continue to be felt during her absence.

On Sunday, a canvass will be held on behalf of Cleveland Families Count, an organization that sprung up to counter a repeal effort against the city's incipient domestic partner registry.

"Back in December, the Obama Pride Cleveland group got together and decided that the next thing folks wanted to be involved in was defending the domestic partner registry," Hazirjian recounted.

To give extra punch to the effort, they are asking that volunteers donate new socks, underwear or toiletries to the Cleveland LGBT Center's Metro Youth Outreach Program, which aids homeless youth.

The event is an official part of the Obama inauguration and has appeared on a few related websites, one of which then sent out information about it from soon-to-be First Lady Michelle Obama.

"I can tell where the responses are coming from," Hazirjian said, noting that much interest in the canvass appears to have been generated by Ms. Obama's e-mail about the event.

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