Mom Fights Judge's Order Preventing Partner From Staying the Night
A lesbian mother of two is asking a Tennessee appellate court to remove a “paramour” clause in her child custody agreement that prevents her longtime partner from staying the night.
A state court judge ordered that Angel Chandler’s partner of nine years not be allowed to spend the night, effectively forcing the couple to live separately, the Jackson Sun reports.
The May 15 order bars Chandler’s partner from staying the night on days Chandler’s children are with her.
The paper reports that the judge issued the order even though a court-ordered psychological evaluation of all the parties noted the partner was a positive influence on the children. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing Chandler in the case.
“By all accounts, this family was succeeding, having gotten through a divorce and introduced a new parent into the home,” Christine Sun, the Southeast regional senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, said in a release about the appeal. “But nine years on, a judge has done his best to destroy all that by imposing this impossible restriction. We are hopeful that the appeals court will recognize that it is unfair to tear this family apart.”
The Sun notes that the Chandler and her partner, who now reside in North Carolina, live in a duplex to accommodate the order. But they are losing rental income because of the forced separation.
