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

When a lesbian couple living in Vermont decided to dissolve their civil union in September 2003, they had no idea their 2-year-old daughter would end up at the center of a prolonged and bitter custody battle that would draw national attention and take multiple court rulings in two states to decide.

In a phone interview with the Blade, Janet Jenkins, 42, told her side of the complex and emotional story.

“I would rather not be going to court,” she said. “I had no idea anything like this would happen.
I thought it would be cut and dry. We agreed to separation terms that were amicable.”

Jenkins won a legal victory Nov. 28 when the Court of Appeals of Virginia urged a lower court to issue a new judgment recognizing Vermont’s authority in the custody battle. Jenkins had previously been awarded liberal visitation rights by a Vermont family court. After the decision was rendered, her former partner, Lisa Miller, 38, took the couple’s daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, now 4, to Virginia where she fought to overturn that ruling.

The most recent ruling found that the lower Virginia court did not have the right to exercise jurisdiction when it granted sole parental rights in October 2004 to Miller, the birth mother.

The three-judge panel ruled that under the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA), Virginia courts could not rule on a case that was already in process in Vermont.

Jenkins, a native of Falls Church, Va., lived with Miller in Virginia from February 1998 to July 2002. They traveled to Vermont in December 2000 to enter into a civil union, returned to Virginia and decided to start a family via artificial insemination. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, Miller gave birth to Isabella in April 2002. That summer the family moved to Vermont.

The couple decided to have another child, but Miller miscarried in July 2003, which is when the problems in their relationship began, Jenkins said. The miscarriage proved too much for the couple to endure and they split in September 2003.

“The surge of hormones, the elation of being pregnant and the hard crash of losing the baby is when it all changed,” Jenkins said.

Help from an unlikely source

Miller moved back to Virginia with Isabella despite Jenkins’ objections and filed to have the civil union dissolved in Vermont family court in November 2003. She requested liberal visitation rights for Jenkins and child support payments for Isabella. In June 2004, the Vermont court awarded Jenkins liberal visitation rights.

But in the interim, Miller had a change of heart. Now dissatisfied with the Vermont court’s ruling, Miller decided to pursue full custody of the couple’s daughter in Virginia. Jenkins claims that Miller first sought help from gay rights groups Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and Lambda Legal, but when they told her that Jenkins had legal custodial rights, Miller then turned to an “ex-gay” group for help. Representatives from GLAD and Lambda Legal said they could not confirm or deny that Miller contacted them seeking legal advice.

“We are ethically required to keep confidential information about people who call us seeking advice or assistance,” said Greg Nevins, senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s southern regional office. “The law demands that all such information — including the identities of the people who call — be shielded under attorney-client privilege, and ultimately, protects the privacy of individuals seeking our help.”

Miller also sought help from anti-gay groups in Virginia and an “ex-gay” organization in Vermont called the Center for American Cultural Renewal, an organization calling for the repeal of Vermont’s civil union law, Jenkins said. The center announced it was funding Lisa Miller’s legal efforts to win sole parental rights to the child. In a fund-raising letter, the group condemned Jenkins for “exploiting” the child to “further the extreme ideology of the radical homosexual agenda.” The letter included a photo of Miller and Isabella.

During this time, Jenkins said Miller reconciled with her brother, a born-again Christian she had not seen in six years, and became a Christian herself. Jenkins’ attorney, Joseph Price, said court records indicate Miller then said she was no longer a lesbian.

“We were Unitarian Universalists because we wanted Isabella to be free to [worship] anywhere she wanted,” Jenkins said. “If you track who is supporting her financially, she wouldn’t be a Christian.”

Lawyer says Jenkins became abusive

Miller is being represented by the Liberty Counsel, which is affiliated with Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. She has repeatedly declined Blade requests for ...