The Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday, having been called upon to decide whether the commonwealth can ignore legal precedent, and previously enacted state and federal law, to overrule a Vermont court's continued affirmation of Jenkins' status as a legal parent and rights to visitation with her daughter Isabella.

Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller (formerly Miller-Jenkins) conceived Isabella during a relationship that began in 1998. They lived in Hamilton, Virginia, traveling to Vermont in December of 2000 to enter into a civil union. Lisa carried Isabella to term, giving birth on April 16, 2002. The three would move to Fair Haven, Vermont in July of 2002. Janet, Lisa and Isabella lived there as a family until September of 2003, when their relationship ended, at which time Lisa renounced her homosexuality and returned to Virginia, taking Isabella with her.

In November of the same year, Lisa returned to Vermont and petitioned to dissolve the civil union, seeking custody of Isabella and child support payments from Janet. Janet also sought custody, but Lisa disagreed that Janet had any parental standing at all, since she was not the biological mother.

"To me, it was more like Isabella and Janet had a deep friendship," Lisa testified to the Rutland County Family Court, insisting that she, as the biological parent, was the only legal one.

"Friends don't pay child support for other people's kids," Janet responded, according to the Washington Post's extensive early 2007 article "About Isabella".

On June 17, 2004, the court awarded Janet visitation rights. On July 1, 2004, the same day that Virginia's Affirmation of Marriage Act took effect, a dissatisfied Lisa asked the Frederick County, Virginia Circuit Court to nullify Rutland County, Vermont's order and sever Janet's parental rights on the basis that the new law did not recognize their family, in direct contradiction of Vermont's civil union law and the recent ruling.

Such a move, in which one parent crosses state lines in hopes of using its laws to overturn a decision made in another jurisdiction, is called "forum shopping," a violation of both state in federal law; in the Miller-Jenkins case, Lisa's move was illegal under the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (28 U.S.C.A. § 1738A) and Virginia's Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (Va. Code Ann. § 20-146.1 et seq). Frederick County Judge Prosser picked up the case nonetheless and, in August of 2004, ruled against Janet, naming Lisa the sole parent of Isabella on the basis that the Affirmation of Marriage Act was meant by the state's General Assembly to overpower previously enacted laws which would have barred him from hearing the very case he ruled on.

Janet's attorneys challenged the ruling on December 8, 2004; the Virginia Court of Appeals would ultimately overturn Judge Prosser's decision and uphold the Vermont order in November of 2006. The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the Appeals Court's ruling on May 8, 2007, and Vermont's Supreme Court upheld Rutland County's decision on March 14, 2008.

"I've noted that Miller's actions read like a checklist of what heterosexual women sometimes do to the fathers of their children," Glenn Sacks wrote in his series, "Lesbian Mom Describes How She Got the Dad Treatment," "including: move the child far away; deny the noncustodial parent the opportunity to visit or co-parent the child; make an unsupported, dubious and oh-so-convenient accusation of abuse against the noncustodial parent; and pretend that the noncustodial parent is out-of-line or acting against the child's best interests by wanting to continue the relationship with the child."

"Opponents of gay marriage, gay activists and the media have focused almost exclusively on the new decision's impact on same-sex marriage," Sacks wrote following Virginia's 2006 ruling. "Lost in this, however, is the fact that the case is a textbook example of one of America's greatest social problems -- the refusal of many divorcing mothers to allow their children to continue to have a relationship with their former spouses."

"All those years of going to church, going to Christian schools, all that started to come back to me," Miller told the Post of her decision to "leave the lifestyle" in the time leading up to the dissolution of her Vermont union. "It wasn't a struggle. I felt peace."

"Lisa Miller," says anti-gay lobby Concerned Women for America, "is a born again Christian who is faithfully working to raise her child according to Biblical principles. Janet Jenkins, Lisa's former partner from a previous homosexual relationship, has diligently worked to destroy this bond and undermine Lisa's faith."

"This case is of paramount national importance," Matt Barber, CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues, added. "Not only is a little girl's spiritual, emotional and physical well-being at stake, the Virginia Supreme Court will essentially be signaling whether states like Vermont and Massachusetts get to radically redefine marriage and family for the rest of the country."

Prior to a prayer rally this morning in Richmond, Virginia, CWA of Virginia State Director Janet Robey added: "We're asking for people to join us in praying that the Virginia Supreme Court will protect little Isabella, her mother Lisa and the bedrock institutions of legitimate marriage and family. We're also asking for people to join in praying, as little Isabella has requested, 'that Janet Jenkins would ask Jesus into her heart,' and then with God's help, deliverance from homosexuality is possible."

"Janet is not a parent," Lisa Miller said at a press conference today; "she is not a parent, plain and simple." Miller also said that her child was in danger of becoming "a political trophy of a homosexual agenda."

"The 'ex-gay' angle is a sinister attempt to sidestep justice by influencing public opinion in a conservative jurisdiction," said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out, to PageOneQ. "The cynical ploy attempts to cast one mother as a religious heroine who has overcome 'sin', while portraying the other mother as unworthy and evil."

The Virginia Supreme Court is expected to rule on Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins this June.

ALSO SEE:
Lambda Legal: Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins
Equality Virginia FAQ
Washington Post: About Isabella
Sacks: In defense of Janet Jenkins, lesbian mom