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Doe V. Doe: Destroying The Presumption That Homosexual Parents Are Unfit- The New Burden Of Proof, Gary L. Caldwell

University of Richmond Law Review

In a recent decision concerning adoption, the Virginia Supreme Court declined "to hold that every lesbian mother or homosexual father is per se an unfit parent." This finding was apparently at odds with Virginia statutes outlawing marriages between members of the same sex and making it a criminal offense to engage in a homosexual relationship. In rejecting the trial court's use of a conclusive legal presumption that homosexuality is tantamount to a parent's unfitness, the justices closely examined the effects of the appellant's lesbianism upon her son to "determine whether the consequences of harm to the child of allowing the …