According to a Utah judge, foster children are better of with opposite-sex parents and, due to his unfounded belief, has removed the child they had planned to adopt from the home of Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland who are married. “We love her and she loves us, and we haven’t done anything wrong,” Peirce told the Salt Lake Tribune. “And the law, as I understand it, reads that any legally married couple can foster and adopt.”
Here are the details of this outrageous and, likely, illegal move:
[Beckie] Peirce, 34, and her wife, 38-year-old April Hoagland, have had the 1-year-old girl in their home for three months while the state moves toward terminating her biological mother’s parental rights.“The mother has asked us to adopt,” Hoagland said.
So the pair — who married in October 2014 and were licensed as foster parents earlier this year — were caught off guard Tuesday when 7th District Court Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen ordered the child removed from their care.
“He said he has research to back that children do better in heterosexual homes,” Hoagland said.
Johansen did not provide specifics of that research in court despite questions from attorneys for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services and the Guardian Ad Litem Office assigned to represent the child, Hoagland and Peirce said. […]
“We have a lot of support,” Peirce said. “DCFS wants us to have the child, the Guardian Ad Litem wants us to have the child, the mother wants us to have the child, so the only thing standing in the way is the judge.”
A Peirce said, even the director of the state agency is upset about this:
Brent Platt, Director of the state’s Division of Child and Family Services, said he had not seen the judge’s order – but his caseworkers must comply. At the same time, he wants to make sure his caseworkers don’t break the law by removing the child. He will have his division’s attorneys look at the judge’s order.“For us, it’s what’s best for the child,” he said.
He said the state does not track the number of same -sex married couples who are fostering children but the state needs as many married couples as possible to help raise the state’s 2600 children now in foster care.
“Any loving couple if they are legally married, and meet the requirements, we want them to be involved,” he said.
It’s one homophobic judge vs. the head of the state agency in charge of adoptions, the wishes of the biological mother, the lawyer in charge of representing the needs of the infant, and the Constitution of the United States of America.
It shouldn’t be long before his decision is reversed. He has nothing to support his decision and the law is against him.
Activist judges, indeed…
The Washington Post has more HERE including some previous bizarre actions taken by Judge Johansen.
UPDATE: It appears that Judge Johansen may have reversed his decision:
A Utah judge on Friday reversed his order to take a foster child away from a same-sex couple because of their sexual orientation, state officials said. […]It is not entirely clear that the fight is over, given the wording of the revised order the judge issued Friday.
Judge Johansen eliminated a line saying that “it is not in the best interest of children to be raised by same-sex couples,” and another ordering the child removed and placed with a heterosexual couple. But the new order still says, “The court cited a concern that research has shown that children are more emotionally and mentally stable when raised by a mother and father in the same home.” And there is still a Dec. 4 hearing scheduled on the best interests of the child.
