
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994                    TAG: 9406250240 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940625                                 LENGTH: RICHMOND

LESBIAN'S MOTHER APPEALS RULING ON CUSTODY OF BOY \

{LEAD} A decision awarding a lesbian custody of her 2-year-old son was appealed Friday to the Virginia Supreme Court, perhaps delaying the child's reunion with his mother.

A lawyer for Kay Bottoms, the boy's grandmother, filed the notice of appeal with the Virginia Court of Appeals, which on Tuesday had awarded custody of Tyler Doustou to Sharon Bottoms.

{REST} The court of appeals order was scheduled to go to Henrico County Circuit Judge Buford Parsons for his signature 14 days after Tuesday's ruling. Parsons was the judge who upheld a juvenile court decision granting custody of Tyler to Kay Bottoms.

But Richard Ryder, attorney for the grandmother, said ``the court of appeals mandate will not be issued until the Supreme Court rules'' in the case.

He said he could not predict whether the Supreme Court would agree to hear the case.

Neither Sharon Bottoms nor her lawyer, Donald Butler, immediately returned phone calls to The Associated Press.

``We do agree that the rule says the mandate cannot issue until the state Supreme Court has decided the petition,'' said Stephen B. Pershing, legal director of the state American Civil Liberties Union. ``But that doesn't mean we might not be able to have a court decide that Tyler should be with Sharon in the interim.''

In March 1993, a Henrico County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge granted custody of Tyler to his grandmother. Parsons upheld the order in September, saying Sharon Bottoms was an unfit mother because she and her live-in lover violated the state's ``crimes against nature'' law.

The ruling was overturned by the state appeals court, which said illegal sexual conduct alone is insufficient reason to take a child from a parent.

{KEYWORDS} LESBIAN CHILD CUSTODY by CNB