Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland, a Utah couple whose marriage became legally recognized following this summer’s Supreme Court decision.
Wanting to further develop a family, they decided to become foster parents. With the newly legal same-sex marriage law, child services licensed the couple as foster parents.
For a short time all was well on the home front.
On Wednesday, a Utah judge, Scott Joahnsen, a notorious judge among those residing in Utah, declared that the one-year-old foster daughter would be better off in the care of heterosexual parents.
The parents as well as the governor of Utah were all confused by this decision. According to the Washington Post, Utah Gov. Gary Herbet said: “I’m a little puzzled by the action down there, personally. [The judge] may not like the law, but he should follow the law…We don’t want to have activism on the bench in any way, shape or form.”
Thankfully, the courts decision has not gone unnoticed by activist groups. The Human Rights Campaign condemned the decision, which will take effect in seven days.
Chad Griffin, the advocacy group’s president, said in a statement: “Removing a child from a loving home simply because the parents are LGBT is outrageous, shocking, and unjust.”
Attention on this mistreatment of justice is spreading with hopes of an appropriate resolution.
To read more about the many flagrant decisions made by Judge Scott Joahnsen click here.
