SUMMARY: The first test of the portability of Vermont's landmark civil union law may come in the form of a Georgia woman seeking visitation with her children.
A Georgia woman is in court seeking to have the state recognize the civil union she and her partner got in Vermont.
Susan Freer's ex-husband, Darian Burns, has custody of their three sons, but Freer was allowed regular visits with the boys until last August -- one month after Freer and her partner, Debra Jean Freer, made the trip to Vermont to have a civil union ceremony. In September, Burns filed contempt charges against his ex-wife saying she had violated the terms of their 1998 visitation agreement.
The agreement, according to a Cox News Service report, prohibits visitation or residence "by the children with either party during any time where such party cohabits with or has overnight stays with any adult to whom party is not married or to whom party is not related."
Freer's attorney, Adrian Lanser, told Cox News, "Susan and Debra made a lifetime commitment, and it meets the standard of marriage." Freer argues that being unable to marry legally, the couple has taken all the steps available to them to create an equivalent arrangement.
Vermont distinguishes between marriage and civil unions, making it clear in statute that they are similar, but separate legal statuses. Stephen Scarborough, of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, told Cox News, "The legal effect is that the same rights and responsibilities given to same-sex couples have to be the same as those given to heterosexual couples. Within the state of Vermont, the rights and responsibilities are very much equivalent to marriage."
Whether that equivalence should be honored by Georgia under the constitution's "full faith and credit" doctrine is a question for the Georgia Court of Appeals to answer. The court has agreed to consider the case and will probably hear oral arguments this fall.
Meanwhile, Susan Freer hasn't spoken to her three sons since December. "I want to have my family like everyone else," she told Cox News.
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