Cole is one of complainants in lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ voter-approved ban on allowing gays, lesbians to be foster, adoptive parents
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A woman who is among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the new state law that bars adoption by unmarried couples has won temporary custody of her grandchild.
Sheila Cole, 39, of Tulsa, Okla., said the decision Tuesday, Jan. 13 by Benton County Circuit Judge Jay Finch represents the first hurdle toward adopting the child who was in foster care in Bentonville.
"We cross one bridge at a time," said Cole, who lives with her domestic partner of nine years.
The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit last month on behalf of Cole and others. The new law took effect Jan. 1 and prohibits unmarried couples from serving as foster parents or adoptive parents. Arkansas voters approved the measure in November.
The ACLU indicated after the hearing that it would not pursue a temporary restraining order it was seeking to stop the law from going into effect unless the group hears from the attorney general’s office that the law will affect Cole’s or another’s adoption petition.
The attorney general’s office has said that the new law wouldn’t apply in Cole’s case unless the state tried to terminate parental rights to the child.
In Cole’s case, the child’s parents have appealed the original state decision removing the child from their home. The appeal has delayed action on an Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services’ petition to terminate their parental rights.
Finch said the baby was taken from her parents at 2 months old and placed in foster care after doctors discovered she had 11 rib fractures, three bruises, a puncture wound on the back of her tongue and a scrape on the back of her throat.
He said Cole must not allow the child’s parents or the maternal grandfather and his wife to have unsupervised visitation with the child because they have not been excluded as potential offenders.
The child’s parents were in the courtroom Tuesday. The father, dressed in jail stripes, was in custody for failure to register as a sex offender.
Cole’s attorneys, Charles Kester and Sarah Williamson of Fayetteville, said one option could be for Cole to adopt the child in Oklahoma, if the parents would consent.
Breck Hopkins, chief counsel for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said Cole also could take the child under placement with a relative, which is different from foster care.
The judge set a March 17 hearing to review the case.