The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday upheld the right of a same-sex partner in a co-parenting relationship to petition courts on matters of child visitation or joint custody.
Kelly Goudschaal, the artificially inseminated biological mother of the couple's two children, had appealed a Johnson County District Court decision granting joint custody to Marci Frazier, with whom she had a co-parenting contract. Goudschaal argued on appeal that the district court violated her constitutionally protected parental rights when it awarded parenting time to a nonparent following the couples breakup.
Goudschaal contended she was the only person with the constitutionally protected status of parent, and that Frazier was simply an unrelated third party. The Kansas Parenting Act, she argued, doesnt grant legal parental rights to anyone who isnt a biological parent or hasnt legally adopted a child.
In a decision authored by Justice Lee Johnson, the Supreme Court found the co-parenting agreement to be valid, and said the district court had the right to consider the existence of a mother-child relationship between Frazier and the two children; to determine the validity of the co-parenting agreement; and to enter orders with respect to child custody, parenting time and child support that are in the best interests of the children.
---
