Mediate Michigan

The Michigan Court of Appeals this week reversed a lower court decision that could have given gays, lesbians and unmarried heterosexuals in Michigan legal standing to obtain joint custody of children.

The decision came in the case involving Renee Harmon and Tammy Davis, a Grosse Ile couple who broke up in 2008 after 19 years. Along the way, Davis had three children through artificial insemination. Wayne County Circuit Judge Kathleen McCarthy ruled in April that Harmon had legal standing to try to pursue joint custody of the children she helped raise.

But appeals judges Karen Fort Hood, Michael Talbot and Christopher Murray disagreed, ruling on Thursday that “one becomes a parent under the Child Custody Act through procreation, or through adoption or the presumption… arising from a child born in a legal marriage.”

They said none of these situations existed in Harmon’s case, so she has no legal standing to sue for joint custody. It sent the case back to McCarthy for further proceedings consistent with its order.

via Appeals court says Grosse Ile woman can’t seek joint custody of kids she helped raise | freep.com | Detroit Free Press.