Court reverses biased child custody ruling

The South Carolina Court of Appeals recently overturned a ruling from a lower court in which a father was penalized and restricted from leaving the state with his children. The panel stated there was no evidence to show any danger to the children by leaving the state with their father. The members further stated that this restriction appeared to be based on the judge’s opinions of the father’s lifestyle, including his earlier admitted homosexual relationship.

This decision shows that a parent’s visitation cannot be restricted because of an adulterous relationship, whether homosexual or heterosexual.

This couple’s divorce was granted in 2004, after the father was transferred to Texas and then Florida with his job, leaving his wife and children in South Carolina. The wife then sued him for divorce and the father began traveling to South Carolina every other weekend to visit his children. In the divorce hearing, the wife stated that she believed her husband was having a homosexual relationship and feared for the safety of her children. The judge awarded custody of the children to the mother with regular unsupervised visitation for the father, but the judge imposed a restriction on the father that he may not take the children out of state for any reason. He did not impose this same restriction on the mother.

This travel restriction was what the father appealed and won. I agree with the Court’s ruling, because either parent should be allowed to travel with their children out of state during their visitation schedule. The mother may not like the fact that her ex-husband is now in a homosexual relationship, but that alone does not make him a danger to his children.