
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 24, 1993                   TAG: 9305240050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

LESBIAN CUSTODY CASE MAY PROVE TO BE A LANDMARK

The court battle of a woman who lost custody of her son because she is a lesbian could become a landmark case, gay and civil rights groups said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia agreed Friday to take the case and intends to pursue it "as far as we need to," Virginia ACLU director Kent Willis said.

Leaders of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the ACLU said they hope the case of Sharon Bottoms, who lost custody of her son to her mother seven weeks ago, is instrumental in overturning a 1985 Virginia Supreme Court decision that ruled that being homosexual is an adequate reason to lose custody.

"Virginia is on the far end of the spectrum in terms of having institutionalized through a court decision homophobia that denies women custody of their kids," said Liz Hendrickson, a lawyer and executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Bottoms, 23, and her companion, April Wade, 27, decided to fight as a couple for custody of 2-year-old Tyler. Bottoms separated from the child's father when she was two months pregnant. He is not involved in the custody battle.

Judge William G. Boice of Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on March 31 awarded custody of Tyler to Bottoms' mother, Kay Bottoms. Kay Bottoms, 42, has declined to comment on the case.

Shortly after Boice's decision, Bottoms moved out of the apartment she shared with Wade in hopes of getting Tyler back. But last week, the women moved back in together, determined to fight for "basic human rights," Wade said.

The decision the ACLU plans to attack is Roe vs. Roe, which divested custody of a 9-year-old Fairfax County girl from her father to her mother because the father was living with his homosexual lover.

Family law experts say the Bottoms case is clearly distinguishable from that case because it involves a grandparent instead of a parent suing for custody.

When a third party tries to gain custody of a child from a parent, that person must prove that the parent is either unfit of has abandoned the child, said Donald K. Butler, chairman of the family law section of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.

The only allegation of unfitness raised at the juvenile court hearing was Bottoms' lesbian relationship.

A Henrico Circuit Court judge was to set a trial date for the appeal on Monday.

by CNB