Utah judge amends order taking foster baby from lesbian couple

[November 14, 2015]  By Peg McEntee
 
 SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - A Utah judge on Friday amended a controversial ruling that would have forced a married lesbian couple to surrender custody of their infant foster daughter within a week, instead scheduling another hearing for next month, the couple's lawyer and a court spokeswoman said.

The couple has cared for the nine-month-old girl since August, but on Tuesday the judge ordered state child welfare workers to remove the baby from the couple's home because of their sexual orientation and find new foster parents within seven days.

According to the state Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS), which opposed the removal order, the judge cited unspecified research that he said showed children were better off with heterosexual parents.

The DCFS said on Thursday it had filed a motion urging Judge Scott Johansen of the Seventh District Court in east-central Utah to reconsider, vowing to petition an appeals court to intervene if his order were not vacated.

On Friday Johansen revised his order requiring removal of the child and instead set a Dec. 4 hearing to determine what is in the baby's best interest, according to Utah state courts spokeswoman Nancy Volman and the couple's Salt Lake City-based lawyer, Jim Hunnicutt.

Representatives from the court, the Utah attorney general's office and the DCFS could not immediately be reached for comment.

News of Johansen's initial ruling sparked an outcry from gay rights and civil liberties advocates.

Even Republican Governor Gary Herbert, who had fought same-sex marriage in his state until the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June legalizing gay matrimony nationwide, had said that he was "puzzled" by the judge's order.

The couple, Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland, have said through their attorney they would fight to keep the child and intended to adopt her.

The couple, licensed as foster parents earlier this year, already are parents to Peirce's 12- and 14-year-old biological children and say they were planning to adopt their foster infant at the request of the baby's biological mother, the Salt Lake Tribune and other news media have reported.

(Reporting by Peg McEntee in Salt Lake City; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Steve Gorman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Alden Bentley)

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