Earlier this week, a Utah juvenile judge issued one of the most outrageous rulings that has come out of an American courtroom in recent memory. He told a lesbian couple that they couldn’t keep their foster child, saying that same-sex parents were bad for children. Following a firestorm of criticism, the judge reversed himself and allowed the couple to keep the child at least until the case comes before his court again in December.
April Hoagland and Beckie Pearce are a legally married lesbian couple in Price, a small town in rural central Utah. The nearest city of any size is Provo, an hour west. After the usual rigorous process of background checks, home visits, and interviews, they were approved to become foster parents to a baby girl in August. Hoagland and Pearce have every intention of adopting the girl.
The state Division of Child Family Services recommended that the girl stay with Hoagland and Pearce during what was supposed to be a routine permanency hearing on Tuesday. However, juvenile judge Scott Johansen saw things differently. Citing his “belief” in “research” that supposedly claimed that children were more “emotionally and mentally stable” when raised by a straight couple. He ordered DCFS to remove the girl from Hoagland and Pearce’s custody and place her with “a duly married, heterosexual foster-adoptive couple” by November 17.
Not surprisingly, Hoagland and Pearce were devastated. Hoagland told KUTV in Salt Lake City that she didn’t think “anything like this could happen anymore” now that marriage equality is the law of the land. She and Pearce added that when they asked Johansen to show them his “research,” he refused.
That’s probably because there is no credible research showing that kids raised in same-sex households do any worse than kids raised in straight households. The only study in recent memory that even appears to indicate that kids don’t do well in same-sex households was done by Mark Regnerus, and has been exposed as fraudulent.
Hillary Clinton was so touched by the story that she tweeted her support.
Being a good parent has nothing to do with sexual orientation—thousands of families prove that. https://t.co/xQLh25RAYR
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 12, 2015
Every party involved vehemently opposed Johansen’s decision. DCFS filed a motion asking Johansen to reconsider. Even the girl’s biological mother objected to Johansen’s ruling, saying she’d asked Hoagland and Pearce to foster her daughter. This country definitely has come a long way when a parent in rural Utah asks a lesbian couple to foster her child. Even Governor Gary Herbert, who has opposed marriage equality in the past, said he was “puzzled” by Johansen’s ruling, and called for the judge to “follow the law.”
The pressure paid off. On Friday afternoon, Johansen amended his ruling to cross out the order to remove the girl from Hoagland and Pierce’s care. While the ruling still included the line about research showing kids didn’t do well in same-sex couples, the word “belief” was replaced with “concern.” The girl will now remain in the custody of DCFS while the biological mother’s parental rights are formally canceled, with Hoagland and Pierce as foster parents. Another permanency hearing is set for December 4.
The prospect that this girl could still be uprooted doesn’t sit well with the Human Rights Campaign, which has filed a formal complaint with the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission. The Utah Code of Judicial Conduct explicitly forbids judges from acting with “bias, prejudice, or harassment” on account of sexual orientation. Johansen’s failure to share the “research” that led to the initial ruling makes this even more outrageous.
From my layman’s perspective, this judge doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Hopefully the commission will take action before the December 4 hearing. For now, anyway, a travesty of justice has been averted.
