Dec 08, 2006  |  By: ELIZABETH A. PERRY  | COMMENTS     

an interview. Her lawyer, Mathew Staver, founder and chair of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University School of Law, released an e-mail statement in response to Jenkins’ comments, which reads:

“It is preposterous to suggest that Lisa is a Christian because she is being allegedly supported. She became a Christian long before she knew about Liberty Counsel. Lisa left the relationship when she became a Christian and Janet became abusive.”

Price said that allegations of abuse by Jenkins are unfounded. He added that the Liberty Counsel is an organization that “promotes hate and intolerance.”

“Liberty Counsel is not interested in the best interests of Janet and Lisa’s daughter,” Price said. “Instead they take advantage of people like Lisa, who declared herself ‘straight’ to get Liberty Counsel’s help, by using them to advance their anti-civil rights agenda. Like so-called legal rights organizations that opposed interracial marriage, Liberty Counsel trades on fear and ignorance in hopes of denying gay and lesbian Americans equal rights under the law.”

Jenkins said that although she does not like what her ex-partner did, she bears no malice toward Miller.

“I wouldn’t want to make the same choices,” she said. “It is sad people have swooped in like vultures for their cause, because they aren’t helping my daughter. They are using Lisa to help their cause and hurting Isabella.”

A private life
turned upside down

Miller filed suit for full custody on July 1, 2004, the same day the Marriage Affirmation Act went into effect in Virginia. The law bars same-sex couples from entering into contracts that resemble marriage rights.

Judge John Prosser of the Frederick County Circuit Court in Virginia declared that his court, rather than the Vermont family court, had jurisdiction over the case under the Marriage Affirmation Act and the couple’s civil union was “null and void” in Virginia. The court ruled that Jenkins was Miller’s “friend,” and that she had no parental rights.

Judge William D. Cohen of the Rutland County Family Court in Vermont rejected Prosser’s ruling and agreed with Price’s arguments that both the Vermont civil union law and a federal statute called the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980, gave the Vermont court jurisdiction over the case. Cohen based this opinion on the fact that both women initially filed jointly for a separation in their civil union in the Vermont court system, a development that places the case in Vermont rather than in a state in which one of the two partners moves. Miller was held in contempt of the Vermont court for refusing to comply<