THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220457
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG SCHNEIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: RICHMOND
``The fact that a mother is a lesbian and has engaged in illegal sexual acts does not alone justify taking custody of a child from her,'' Judge Sam W. Coleman III wrote for the three-judge appellate panel, reversing the verdict of a lower court.
{REST} Gay rights and civil rights advocates praised the ruling as an important step in a case that has drawn national attention. ``Virginia has now joined the consensus of other states,'' said Peter Swisher, a family law expert at the University of Richmond law school.
Sharon L. Bottoms, the 24-year-old Richmond woman at the center of the case, took a more personal view.
``I'm just looking forward to taking my son home with April and having our family,'' she said, referring to her 28-year-old partner, April Wade. It was her relationship with Wade that caused a Circuit Court judge to rule last September that Bottoms was unfit to raise her son.
On Sept. 7, Henrico County Judge Buford M. Parsons Jr. upheld a juvenile court decision awarding custody of the boy to Bottoms' mother, 43-year-old Kay Bottoms. The reversal on Tuesday left the grandmother ``distraught,'' said her attorney, Richard R. Ryder.
``I think it's another demonstration of the general breakdown in morality in this state and in this country,'' Ryder said.
Kay Bottoms is likely to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, Ryder said. If that happens, he added, they will ask the court to let the boy, Tyler Doustou, stay with his grandmother until the final appeal runs its course.
The boy's father has not attempted to gain custody.
The appeals panel said that while Sharon Bottoms' performance as a parent was ``far from ideal'' - citing the fact that she was unemployed, had moved a number of times, twice spanked the boy hard enough to leave bruises and ``on occasion'' swore in his presence - she had generally been a caring mother.
And while oral sex is against the law in Virginia, the judges wrote that there is no evidence Sharon Bottoms ever exposed the child to sexual activity. They cited studies showing that merely being in the presence of a homosexual couple is not known to harm a child psychologically.
``Today's decision marks an important and healthy change of direction for the courts of Virginia. I'm proud to be a Virginian today,'' said Stephen B. Pershing, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which sponsored Sharon Bottoms' court fight.
Sharon Bottoms said in a news conference that she realizes her fight is probably not over but that she now expects to prevail.
When she learned the news Tuesday morning, ``I screamed and cried and was really happy,'' Bottoms said. She said she told Tyler, who was visiting, that ``he could come home and live with Mumma and April now.''
The original court order allowed Sharon Bottoms to keep Tyler from 10 a.m. every Monday until 6 p.m. every Tuesday, as long as April Wade was not present.
That order will hold for at least two more weeks, until paperwork is complete, so Bottoms had to return Tyler to his grandmother within hours of regaining custody.
Bottoms said she has no specific plans other than to settle into a quiet family life with Wade and Tyler, who will turn 3 on July 6.
``I'm not a hero,'' she said, ``I'm just a mother trying to get her son back.''
{KEYWORDS} LESBIAN CHILD CUSTODY
by CNB