A lesbian mother in Australia has been forbidden from moving her daughter to New South Wales after the Family Court ruled that the woman’s ex-partner has equal rights to the child.
The 41-year-old wanted sole parental responsibility due to the fact that her ex-partner is not cited as a parent on the birth certificate. The ruling was passed however, with Paul Cronin, the justice in charge of the case, stating that both women have “equal responsibility for the child.”
The child is four, and Justice Cronin decided that this was too young an age for such sudden separation. He also noted that the four-year-old is incredibly close to the ex-partner’s eight-year-old daughter, and that a move could prove traumatic for the child.
The move has therefore been postponed until next year, when the girl will be almost six and capable of maintaining a relationship with both her step-sibling and non-biological mother.
