Lesbian Must Pay Child Support

A lesbian who adopted children must pay child support after she and her partner split. This from the Indiana Cout of Appeals. Here’s the article about the decision from the Indianapolis Star. And here’s another brief article from the Los Angeles Times. The decision comes in the middle of a debate in Indiana about whether to amend the Indiana constitution to prohibit same sex marriage.

The woman sought to vacate the adoption of the children after she and her partner split and her partner moved away. The Court of Appeals, ruling in the case of Mariga v. Flint, Case No. 79A02-0407-CV-612 (Ind. Civ. App. February 16, 2005), said that was insufficient justification for compromising the support of the children:

Whether a parent is a man or a woman, homosexual or heterosexual, or adoptive or biological, in assuming that role, a person also assumes certain responsibilities, obligations, and duties. That person may not simply choose to shed the parental mantle because it becomes inconvenient, seems ill-advised in retrospect, or becomes burdensome because of a deterioration in the relationship with the children’s other parent. To the contrary, of key importance is the relationship between parent and children, not between parent and parent. What we must focus on is the duties owed by a parent to her children, and those duties do not evaporate along with the relationship between the parents-indeed, those duties do not evaporate even if the relationship between parent and children deteriorates.

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