- Missing: Isabella Miller-Jenkins
When Lisa Miller was ordered to turn custody of her daughter Isabella Miller-Jenkins over to her former partner Janet Jenkins, Miller disappeared with her daughter. Transfer of custody was to take place on Jan. 1.
To help find the girl, two North Texas lesbians, Sheena Patin and Kelsie Orsburn, have set up a new Facebook page called “Help find Isabella Miller-Jenkins.” Isabella has been listed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
The ACLU represented Jenkins. On their web site, she said:
“Isabella is my daughter. Lisa and I decided together to have a child, and that we would use alternative reproductive technology to do so. We picked out a donor together. I was there with Lisa when she gave birth to Isabella. We gave her both our last names, since we were both her parents. After Isabella was born, Lisa and I cared for her together. We both fed her, played with her, changed her diapers, and loved her.”
Anyone with information regarding Isabella’s and Lisa’s whereabouts should call the Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678 or the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office at 540-586-4800.
I think you should be ashamed of yourself. You are exploiting this young lady for your Gay and lesbian agenda. You know very well that this child is with her bio mother safe and sound whereever that may be. If I could talk to the bio mother my advice would be to keep this young lady safe from the likes of you and your homo agenda until she reaches the age o majority.
SHAME ON YOU AND THE LIKES OF YOU.
You people don’t give a crap about this kid, you just wanna use her to make your dumbass point.
Nice to know that Franklin and Dee are so compassionate, and understand the love of a parent for their child whether biological or not. It warms the heart! And I always thought the right winged nuts were too dumb to even read. Just goes to show that you learn something new everyday.
Franklin, my dear madame, I think you’ve overlooked a very important point:
Her biological mom seems to be a homo too, or at least her former lesbian lover was under that impression.
Aside from that I think you’re right. We have to avoid the homo agenda of allowing women control over their own bodies. They should not be allowed to make decisions for themselves to bring children into a loving household. That is the crux of the homo agenda and it must be stopped.
The state should step in and remove these children from their loving, yet maliciously gay parents and place them in foster care or orphanages on the taxpayers’ dime. While we’re at it, we could oppose socialism by lowering taxes and cutting social programs so the aforementioned orphans will be forced to live in squalor – their just punishment for the crime of their parents, lo, I say, until the fourth generation.
The lesbian agenda aside, forcing a child to leave the parent she is obviously closest to, would be severely punishing an innocent person. This kind of trauma would affect her throughout the rest of her life, and make it hard for her to love and trust others. Shouldn’t the person most affected have a major say in this kind of decision? When will children’s rights be taken into account?
Jennie – the child had two loving parents, and then one took the child away. So, yes, you are correct to ask – where is the child’s rights?
Where is the child’s right to have a relationship with both of the parents she had known since birth? It is no different then when a heterosexual marriage breaks up and the mother; out of spite, does not want to let the father see the children. It is not right – children should not be the pawns when two adults decide they no longer love each other.
First of all DJ, I am not a madame the names FRANKLIN. Dont know many madames named Franklin. The bio mom has stated she is not a lesbian irregardless of what her former Lesbian lover said. People I believe sometimes get caught up in relationships because of maybe a divorce or whatever, and people (specially the Gay and Lesbian community) prey on these situations. That being said, I believe people can change and apparently that is what has happened in this case. I will state once again I hope this mother runs and runs as long as she has to to protect this little girl from this deviat.
Each morning I scan the news, praying that Isabella and Lisa Miller are still well. They’ve got at least a decade of hiding to go. I pray they make it. Maybe if they can hold out for 5 years or so, Isabella’s preferences will finally matter.
Why the left leaning fascists terrorizing this family cannot understand the ramifications of using the courts to break ties between a high functioning biological parent and healthy child is beyond all human understanding.
If hate has blinded anyone, then it’s blinded the people who are driving this travesty of justice against Isabella and Lisa Miller. When did it become politically correct to despise the natural bond between a mother and child? How did our nation fall so far, so fast?
If you’re a parent, pray these crazed fascists never set their sights on your family. It seems the courts can justify any number of infringements on civil rights in order to indulge the narcissism of a handful of gay and lesbian activists.
May our national sanity soon be restored.
Franklin,
Take a chill pill Dude! Can’t you tell when you’e being trolled? Never rise to that kind of bait. It’s merely a lure to get you off topic.
Taking this child away from a mother she has always lived with and sending her to live with a stranger she has not lived with since she was 17 months old and does not call “Mommy” or think of as her mother is cruel to the child, particularly since she has been raised in an evangelical church with beliefs that are so different from those of Jenkins. Can you imagine the trauma this child will experience being taken from her mother? Janet Jenkins isn’t her biological mother and, from every news account I read, didn’t adopt her and was never the girl’s primary caregiver. That was Miller. Isabella is nearly eight. She isn’t likely to ever regard Jenkins as her parent at this point. Janet Jenkins should drop this case and accept that living with her is not what is best for Isabella. That would show that she REALLY has Isabella’s best interest at heart. I hope Lisa Miller brings the girl home since life on the run won’t be good for her, but I think it’s a real travesty of justice for the judge to give Isabella to a stranger.
If you had really been following the case, then you would know that Lisa Miller was preventing her former partner from visitation of their child. Jenkins was only seeking visitation – and after Miller defied the court time after time, the judge decided the best interest of the child was not to be raised by a selfish, vindictive, cold heart bitch.
Children should not be used as pawns,and that is exactly what Lisa Miller did. And that is what the cold hearted supposed christian right is trying to do with this case as well.
Does it matter who the biological mother is??? She helped raise the child from birth – you people do not get it! You need to go back and pray hard for some real understanding and compassion from God. People like you give christianity a bad name.
I’ve read a lot of arguements against Janet having custody.
1. She’s a lesbian.
Lisa miller was also a lesbian, she considers herself an “ex-gay”. She’s also mentally ill from what I’ve read about her, even the articles that are more biased toward Lisa point out the fact that she’s mentally ill. She’s engaged in unhealthy behaviors in the past and the fact that she’s run off to BFE with her kid isn’t really showing anyone that she’s mentally fit to take care of a child.
2. Janet isn’t her bio mom.
So if a heterosexual gets divorced and the man isn’t the bio dad because he was shooting blanks then does that mean he shouldn’t have any visitation to his children at all?
3. Janet didn’t adopt Isabella.
That’s because Janet thought she was protected under their Civil Union. Vermont recognizes Civil Unions therefore Janet IS Isabella’s legal parent under Vermont law.
Lisa left Janet and moved to Virginia, she dissolved the Civil Union there thinking since Virginia doesn’t recognize Civil Unions/Marriage that she would get custody of Isabella on her part. The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act passed in 1980 safeguards parents from this happening. (Oh by the way that was passed because of all the issues heterosexuals were having with their wives/husbands going across state lines in hopes of getting sole custody of their kids)
4. Isabella doesn’t know Janet.
Isabella DOES know Janet, but Lisa has been defying visitation orders FROM THE COURTS, and arrangements that were made between the two of them since the beginning. Isabella hasn’t seen Janet in such a long time because of Lisa’s actions. Everyone is so concerned with the well being of her, but no one is taking into consideration that Lisa is now forcing her to live in hiding which is going to be even more detrimental to her than living with a lesbian.
Janet was paying child support to Lisa, without a court order making her do so, because she considers herself Isabella’s parent. Lisa took the money and did whatever she did with it, so somewhere at sometime Lisa did consider Janet to be a parent to Isabella.
Now just a question to everyone bashing? Why are you on Dallas Voice’s website? I really don’t get it so maybe you can educate me. There has to be a reason you’re on a GAY BASED NEWSPAPER’S website. I can understand if someone stumbled across it in a search for whatever you were searching, but really there are numerous people on here and it’s really making me wonder. Are you trying to spread your heterosexual agenda all over the place, or are you genuinely concerned for the well-being of Isabella? Could you possibly be closeted and you’re looking around for a reason to tell your family so they’ll still love you? Or maybe you all get together on Monday nights and troll LGBT websites and leave ignorant comments. Please enlighten me I’m very excited to find out.
I’d be curious if the religious nutjobs would feel the same way if the situation was reversed, if the bioparent was the unrepentant lesbian and the parent of choice was attending an extremist church would the bible thumpers still think that biology is all that makes a family? Or would they suddenly believe that whatever got the kid into church was the right way to go.
The thing you always have to remember about the religious right is that they have to recruit new members into there organizations, and they are willing to pervert the law, and support kidnapping to do so.
I came to this site because I was concerned about the child – I didn’t know or care what kind of site it was. If you only want comments from those agreeing with you, why even have a comment area?
I honestly don’t care whether the “left-out” parent is gay or straight, male or female. I would be happy to see the child go to Janet if it were the child’s choice. But the child – not the parents or the court – should decide with whom she makes her home. A child should never be forced to live with someone any more than an adult should be forced to change partners! If visitation isn’t working, the parents should be required to attend mediation (preferably NVC – Nonviolent Communication). Using this case to further an agenda – gay or straight – is unconscionable.
A child’s preference is never the final deciding factor in child custody suits. The courts are charged with determining one thing “What is in the best interest of the child?”. In some cases the preference of the child is an important factor in determining that, but clearly the court in this matter felt differently.
I hope that if any church is found to be complicit in this kidnapping that it leadership is prosecuted to the full extent of the law and that the church’s tax exempt status be revoked.
Jennie,
I hope you aren’t a parent, because you just said the most outrageous statement. If the child should decide…. the child would probably be eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the child would be watching Sponge Bob instead of doing homework, and the child would be living at Disney Land instead of going to school and living in a house. Get real – let me ask you how you felt about the case of the child in Brazil. Did you think the child should have stayed in Brazil as he would have chosen, or should he have been reunited with his biological Dad here in the USA whom he hadn’t seen in years because of his mother leaving the country with him ?
The only ones who are using this case to further an agenda, are the anti-gay nuts.
Jennie I enjoy a good debate, and you’re comments were well written and a joy to read despite the fact I disagree. You weren’t quite the person I was talking about. I definatly don’t want everyone to agree with me, that would be a rather boring world if you ask me. I would appreciate some intelligence in the comments, like you’ve shown you’re capable of doing.
While I somewhat agree with you on letting the child choose who to live with, I disagree with Lisa taking Isabella and not allowing her to see Janet. That gives Lisa an unfair advantage, and if it were up to the children all the time there would be a lot more people doing what Lisa is doing right now. Divorce is always hard on a kid, but when the kid is caught in the middle of a huge tug-of-war between two parents it makes it that much harder.
Listen, Elizabeth, how dare you stoop to such an ignoble level as to call me names?! If there’s any TROLL here, it’s you or Little Miss Franklin.
First of all, regarding this biological ‘mother’s’ lesbianism. If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck … or something else that sounds a little like duck. Please also let me know what ‘irregardless’ is supposed to mean.
I love Jesus as much as the next person, as I’ve always had a soft spot for middle eastern men, but I fail to see what her evangelical ‘faith’ has to do with the court’s decision. The court uses guidelines (which I can guarantee were not shaped by the gay agenda) to determine which home is most suitable and stable for the child. Children need a stable home, and living a life as a fugitive is not in the child’s best interest.
Furthermore, what’s with the double standard? It’s not OK to shove an imaginary ‘gay agenda’ of love and acceptance, but it’s fine to shove an ‘evangelical’ agenda of hatred, discrimination and division in the name of our lord and sweet merciful savior down the kids throat. That’s great.
Y’all need to go find someone else’s bridge to hide under.
Jeff: I never said, nor would I ever say, that children should have the right to make all decisions. I am simply saying that in cases of separation / divorce, they should be able to choose the parent they prefer, just as you and I can choose the person we want to live with. But this is not just about rights, it’s also the most sensible solution psychologically. Children forced to leave their preferred parent will react either externally with challenging behaviors or internally with depression – neither of those outcomes is a healthy one for the child.
Some day children will have this right. We have granted rights to soldiers, Blacks, the handicapped, women, gays etc. etc. Children, whose rights should have been considered first, are last, but they will gain rights eventually. It’s just a matter of time. Children are human beings and deserve to be treated as human beings.
I’m concerned about the kid and am commenting on this blog because it’s about this case. I don’t have any objections to gay marriage or gays adopting kids. I voted against it when my state did outlaw gay marriage. But this is a case where it is dreadfully unfair to the child to send her to live with a woman who really IS a stranger and who she has no emotional ties to. Of course it’s not fair to Jenkins that she can’t see the girl, but if Jenkins really loves that child she will not try to take her away from Miller. I don’t think transferring custody is in Isabella’s interests, even now.
As for the bio mother’s lesbianism, it sounds like she was confused about her sexual orientation and was never actually gay, is bisexual, or is a lesbian who has decided to be celibate due to her religious beliefs. I’d guess that sexual orientation is more of a continuum than a hard and fast identity and some people lean more towards one end or the other and some are in the middle and that people can go in either direction during a lifetime. I know people, including family members, who have been with both men and women. I don’t really care about what it is here. I just think it isn’t fair to take a kid away from her mother and send her to live with a strange woman she’s had no real bond with since she was 17 months old.
I’d just like to point out that the issue here is not really the “morality” of the case, but the fact that Lisa Miller-Jenkins pointedly disobeyed the Vermont court’s rulings to allow Janet her parental visitation rights. The couple was legally joined by a civil union in the state of Vermont at the time of Isabella’s birth. This union gave both women all of the rights afforded to married couples, including parental rights to any children born into the union. After their separation Lisa moved to Virginia, a state that does not recognize civil unions, probably hoping that the courts in Virginia would not consider Janet a parent or give her any rights. In a custody battle this sort of thing is called “forum shopping,” and is prohibited by both the Federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (28 U.S.C.A. § 1738A) and Virginia’s Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (Va. Code Ann. § 20-146.1 et seq).
For this reason, Virginia ultimately ruled that Vermont had jurisdiction in the case. Vermont ruled that Lisa must allow Janet visitation, and warned her that her parental rights could be revoked if she refused to do so. When this happened, Lisa disappeared with Isabella. This is now a case of parental abduction. This is kidnapping. If Isabella has not seen her mother, Janet, in recent years it is because Lisa has withheld her from doing so, but that does not change the facts of the case, nor does it give Janet any less right to see her daughter.
Here are some facts on parental abduction from parentalabduction.org:
In October, 2002 the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention prepared the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children. In that report, the following key facts were provided:
In 1999, there were an estimated 203,900 children abducted by family members. Only 56,500, or 28% were reported to law enforcement.
Of these 203,900 children, 110,106 (54%) were under six years old.
Fifty-three percent (108,067) of family abducted children were abducted by their father and twenty-five percent (50,975) were abducted by their mother.
Approximately twenty-one percent (42,819) of the children abducted by non-custodial family members, were missing for more than one month, and six percent (12,700) remained missing.
The “typical” family abducted child is six to eleven years old, female, white, and of single parent households.
The “typical” abduction occurs with no threat or use of force or weapon, with the intent to prevent contact and affect custody permanently.
Here is a well-informed (complete with referenced studies) paper on “The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-Being of Children,” from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ scientific journal, “Pediatrics.”
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/349
As the studies show, the only detriment to children raised by lesbians or gay men comes from society’s refusal to accept these families as families. If any harm is being done to Isabella it is at the hands of Lisa, by refusing to allow Isabella any contact with her second parent, the person who was holding Lisa’s hand when she underwent IVF, the person who was in the delivery room when Isabella was born, and who helped care for her up until the couple’s separation. As any parent who has suffered through this can tell you, you don’t stop loving your child, or longing to hold them, just because months or years have passed. You continue to fight for your child. By continuing to fight for Isabella, Janet has proven the courts right in upholding her parental rights, that’s the only thing a real parent could possibly to do.
Jennie – OMG! You are really going off the deep end now. So, you won’t give a child the right to make a decision regarding what they eat for dinner, but you are going to trust them to make the most important decision in their life regarding visitation and custody? Children who are abused by their parents would choose their abuser over someone who is better fit to raise them. Abused wives stay with their abusers. It is not as simple as you make it sound. And it would appear that while not physically abusive, Miller is at least abusing her daughter mentally.
Also, that would be rewarding Miller for breaking the law and penalizing Jenkins and the child for following law. How is that right ?
Also, you say that we have granted rights to blacks, gays…. shows how little you know. The GLBT community is still fighting for their rights.
And you are correct, the child’s rights should be considered first. Miller should have considered her daughter’s well being. She should have never prevented her daughter from having a continuing relationship with her other parent. It was a selfish, mean and hateful act against Isabella by her mother.
Abused children run away every day in our country.
The GLBT community is still fighting for their rights but it’s pretty clear that they are going in the direction of greater rights, slowly but surely. Children have no spokespersons, so I and others who are concerned with children’s rights must and will continue to speak out.
Ok – Jennie – where were you in fighting for the Child’s right to have visitation with Jenkins? Why did you let it go this far before you got involved? Why penalize Jenkins versus a criminal like Miller?
You never answered my question regarding the Brazil case. Would you send that boy back to Brazil to live with his step father? That is the exact same situation except taking sexual orientation out of the equation.
I didn’t know about this case until now, or I would have done that.
So Jennie, Why would you supposedly support Jenkins in visitation in the past, but now you support Miller and nothing for Jenkins. It does not make sense.
Also – again – you keep skirting the Brazil issue – should we be packing that boy’s bags to send him back???
I’m not Jennie, but I’d have left that boy in Brazil with his grandparents and stepfather. He doesn’t speak English and he’d lived there since he was four years old. His sister was there. I think the dad should have been able to visit regularly and the kid should have spent holidays in the U.S., but I don’t think it was fair to the kid to send him back to the dad.
I never said “nothing for Jenkins”. How are you always hearing things I have not said? And I haven’t replied to the Brazil question simply because I am not familiar with that story.
I am leaving the discussion now, as I am tired of not being heard.
This comment is to Mr.D. J. Once again I am not Little Miss Franklinl. I am in fact 25 year what some people call a hot hunk. I simply prefer Eve rather than Steve. You are entiled to be the deviate that you are. Just dont try to indoctrinate little innocent children into your sorbid lifestyle.
Finally, for you there will come a day when you will get to meet EVE and you will probably hate yourself for your earthly choices. But it will be too late.
Leave this mother and her child be.
Hot Hunk Franklin,
I hope god had the good sense to make you sterile. I’m sure if any child of yours turned out gay you would obviously be very emotional abusive if not physically abusive. Why is a straight hot hunk of burning love like yourself reading a gay paper anyway? Don’t you have better things to do? If you were so hot – you wouldn’t have all this time on your hands to spend on gay websites.
Listen, Frances, as sure as I am that you’re a ‘hot troll hunk’ and humble to boot, god giveth and god taketh away. God may have made you well endowed – with a nice, full bosom – but she didn’t see fit to give you a lick of sense.
You prefer Eve to Steve? So what you’re saying is the correct coupling is Madame and Eve? And everything else is ‘sorbid’ (sordid sorbet, that is) and ‘deviate?’
I don’t think you could have set this one up any better.
Furthermore, if you don’t like someone presupposing your gender, then you shouldn’t assume mine. I have already met Eve, and I must say I prefer Lilith.
Leave these gays and their forum be.