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Lesbian gets custody of child

The Michigan Supreme Court reversed two lower courts Wed-

nesday (January 17) and restored custody of 12 year old

Jillian Miller to her mother Margareth Miller, a self-affirmed lesbian. This is believed to be the first time a state supreme court has ruled in a gay parent's favor when the contest was between parents.

Judge Ziem of the Oakland County Circuit Court said the mother's sexual orientation was

a major consideration when he awarded custody to the father. Wednesday's decision appears to establish that lesbianism alone is not grounds for refusing custody.

"Two and a half years of hell is truly over," said Ms. Miller, 39, an Ann Arbor social researcher and novelist, who has been fighting to retain custody. "After I stopped crying and laughing and getting hysterical, I called Jillian at school. She said, 'Are you sure it's really over?' When I said it was, she said, 'Can I have the rest of the day off from school?""'

The high court ruled without dissent to reverse the state Court of Appeals and the Oakland County Circuit Court, which had awarded custody to Paul Miller, a General Motors employee, living in a Detroit suburb.

"The record does not present clear and convincing evidence," the high court said, "that the change of custody is in the best interest of the child.".

The Ann Arbor law firm of O'Brien, M or a n, Dimond handled the case. This is the same firm which successfully defended two V.A. nurses in Ann Arbor charged with a series of hospital murders in 1977. Both cases had serious political and human rights aspects. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said that the high court had reaffirmed the argument that "no. court can take a child from a parent and consider evidence of sexual status alone, without proof that status has a detrimental effect on the child."

But mother and daughter had been "living, hour by hour, day by day," Ms. Miller said, in anticipation of the court ruling, which experts had predicted would favor the father. "It's been very painful. Now that it's over, let us all go back to living our lives, loving our children and getting along in our own spaces."

She said Wednesday was like D-Day for Jillian, who had been living in a sort of "war" since she was 10. The Millers divorced in 1973 and Jillian was with her mother for three years, until her father filed for custody. A temporary custody arrangement gave Jillian to her mother and the Millers' son, Ricky, to the father.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Frederick Ziem ruled in June 1977 that custody should go to the father, because he was capable of providing a more stable home life. The Judge said Ms. Miller's homosexuality, which he repeatedly referred to

as "sexuai ambivalance," was a "major consideration" in his ruling and the appeals court upheld that decision after or dering Ziem to question Jillian more closely about her own parental preference.

"I think it is a return to sanity in the judicial process," said Arlie Scott, national vicepresident of the National Organization for Women (NOW). "There's no reason why the best interests of the child should not

always be considered. The home situation should be evaluated in terms of the individuals and not sexual preference."

Attorney O'Brien said he thinks the opinion may reflect a new awareness. "A few years ago a homosexual parent wouldn't consider that they had any chance, but now there's a growing awareness that some education has taken place."

Ms. Miller celebrated first with a few sips of champagne at

work and then went home to spend the day playing with Jillian and the dollhouse she had built for her for Christmas.

Over the past year, The Michigan Organization For Human Rights (MOHR) coordinated media publicity in Michigan for Ms. Miller and helped with fund-raising. Don Mager, Project Facilitator for MOHR, and a gay parent himself, reports that Michigan gays are ecstatic at this victory. "On

Miller tells her story

Jillian Miller is a little girl with large brown eyes and a quick cheeky smile plus a very loving personality. Jillian is twelve years old, still a child in many ways although her budding adult self emerges now and then. She wanted three things last Christmas.

1. A doll's house.

2. A hair curling iron.

3. To remain living with a mother she loves and is comfortable with. The first two things were pretty easy although the budget had to be juggled somewhat. The third wish and the most important wish for Jillian will possibly not be. For the last two and a half years of this little girl's life she and her mother have been struggling to remain together. The courts and many individuals want to remove Jillian from her mother.

Why would the courts take Jillian away from a mother she loves and is comfortable with? The reason is that Jillian's mother is a Lesbian.

I am that mother.

I am that Lesbian.

I am Margareth Miller and Jillian and I desperately need help. The battle my little girl and I have been fighting has been long and terribly exhausting. And it has already cost thousands of dollars. Yet it MUST be done.

There are many reasons.

The most important issue is, of course, Jillian's happiness and feeling of security. She WANTS to remain with me.

She has stated this over and over again to everyone concerned with the case, but her wishes have been ignored.

The courts appointed child psychologist and the "friend of the court" said she should stay with me but the courts have ruled otherwise. The only reason she is still in my 'possession temporarily' is due to the hard work of my lawyers.

Jillian has suffered a repetitive dream that someone is pulling her out of the side door. She screams for me to help but someone slams the door on her hands and those hands are cut off. She cries "Mummy I can't hold onto you anymore." And I, this UNFIT LESBIAN mother am the one who has to try to comfort her. This is the dream of a little girl, a little girl who has been told three times in the last two and a half years that she will be removed from her mother, her home, only we never know when it will happen. Today, tomorrow, we don't know, we wait day by day and have lived like this for the last two and a half years. This custody case has a title,

"IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD"

Jillian sobs, "But I know what my best interests are, I NEED to spend this time with my mother" For Jillian I must continue to fight.

I fight for parents, Gay or Straight.

When, a parent has cared for her/his child/ren for a long time with love and patience, (and, of course, those angry moments) we cannot, MUST not allow the courts, an absent parent or anyone to suddenly step into the picture, demand and actually GET custody on some ground that has nothing to do with parenting, such as more money, education, social status, religion, better neighborhood or sexual performance that takes place behind closed doors, etc.

I cannot sit back while those we have trusted to govern us turn and judge us, not by LAW but by their own prejudice and narrow mindedness.

I fight for the millions of Homosexuals.

The majority of those millions are people trying to earn a living, get an education, loving a little or lot, raising families, making mistakes, having successes or failures, eating meals, sleeping and being part of thousands of communities. They shed tears also, because it hurts, really, really hurts to be discriminated against. If Jillian and I lose, then the last two and a half years will be all for nothing, the money, energy, and pain will be for nothing and another human being will have to go through the HELL that Jillian and I have experienced. I fight for human rights.

What and who will be judged next if we just sit back and take this kind of injustice? Like a mass flock of sheep do we accept the "push" here, the "push" there without question, without so much as a "yelp"? Or do we fight back in order to prevent someone, at anytime, from stepping into our/mine/your lives and maybe break them.

None of us are immune and if we are attacked we desperately need each other. Last but certainly not least I fight for the right of children to decide, for themselves, where they need to live, and their right to choose without fear where it is that they feel the most loved, the most comfortable, the most cared for. We cannot fight alone.

Our battle is everyone's. Please, please help.

Now we wait for the Michigan Supreme Court to make a ruling.

We NEED your emotional and financial support.

My lawyers are willing to fight to the end, but we need funds in order to keep this important legal battle going.

Even one dollar is not too small, one hundred people with one dollar to spare equals one more hour we get to fight in the courts.

Again PLEASE help us.

Margareth and Jillian Defense Committee. 3407 Michigan Union University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan 48109 Sincerely Margareth Miller

Thursday, my phone started ringing at 6 a.m. with calls from gay folks who had heard the previous night's news on TV, and the phone has been leaping off the hook all day. The issues were absolutely clear. Lesbianism was what was on trial, and the court ruled that there is not sufficient reason for

removal of a child from its mother's custody. We are all winners with this one!"

Troy, N.Y. is 43rd

Troy, New York, has become the 43rd municipality in the United States to ban discrimination of one sort or another against gays.

The measure the city has passed, which prohibits discrimination in all city hiring practices against those who are homosexual, was adopted without debate in a 7-0 city council vote. No gay organizations had made any concerted effort for its passage.

According to Werner Kuhn, Vice Chairperson of the New York State Coalition of Gay Organizations, "No group went to the City Council requesting or demanding action." It was a case, he said, of the City Council members being "wellmeaning individuals who have been exposed to the need for protection of gay men and women."

Council members, he said, know gay professionals, and so they saw no great problem or great danger in passing the ordinance.

NJ Sex Law Struck Down

A New Jersey state appeals court has ruled that criminal penalties for private homosexual acts between consenting adults are unconstitional. This follows a similar decision from the State Supreme Court last year concerning private heterosexual acts.

That 1977 decision, though allowing for state regulation of public sexual activity, said that "the dignity of the law is undermined when an intimate personal activity between consenting adults can be dragged into the court and 'exposed."

The new decision overturns the guilty verdict against Walter S. Ciuffini convicted in 1967 of assault with intent to commit sodomy.

The appellate court noted that the revision of New Jersey's state penal code which takes effect in September effectively eliminates penalties for homosexual acts. There is a bill before the New Jersey state legislature's Judicial Committee that would exempt homosexual acts from the criminal code revision.