Judge removes baby from lesbian foster parents

The Utah attorney general’s office said on Thursday it was reviewing Johansen’s order but declined to discuss it further.

However, the judge would not share his research or say where he got it.

An official for the Utah State Courts told ABC News that the Utah Code of Judicial Conduct prevents judges and court staff from talking about pending cases.

But Judge Johansen is no stranger to controversy. Utah officials and the couple filed court challenges demanding the judge rescind the order. The girl has been with the couple since August. They wanted to adopt the child, the report said, but were denied Wednesday by a judge that suggested it’d be better off in a heterosexual home.

A full transcript of Johansen’s initial ruling has not been made public and may not be because court records of cases involving foster children are kept private to protect the kids.

It stated that unless the judge vacates his order, the DCFS will proceed with their petition to the court of appeals. “So I just started making phone calls as soon as we left the courtroom”.

The agency is tasked with keeping children in one foster home for as long as possible, on the condition that the parents – who are all screened before becoming foster parents – are providing adequate care. “All major studies on the matter show that parents’ sexual orientation is not related to a child’s mental health and social development”. The ACLU of Utah will continue to closely monitor the situation. While he is not commenting publicly, the foster parents are.

The state’s Republican governor also addressed the issue. “[The judge] may not like the law, but he should follow the law”.

The parents, April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce, said they are shattered.

After Johansen ordered the infant removed from couple Peirce and Hoagland, the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group, condemned the decision, which goes into effect in seven days.

The ruling came during a routine hearing for April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce.

The couple has the blessing of the baby’s biological mother and is hoping to be able to adopt her, raising it with Peirce’s two other teenaged children.

They live in Carbon County.

“He’s never been in our home, never spent time with the child in our home or our other children so he doesn’t know anything about this”, Peirce told the local station KUTV.

“This is the first time there has been an attempt to deprive gay foster parents of their rights to care for an adoptive child”, said CNN legal analyst Paul Callan.

“Me, cut her hair?”