Same-sex couple ordered to give up baby in US

A Utah couple said they have been ordered to give up a baby because they are lesbians.

April Hoagland and Rebecca Peirce welcomed the baby girl into their home as foster parents three months ago.

The couple, who are married, were raising two children when the state’s child welfare agency approved them to be foster parents to the child.

They had hoped to eventually adopt the 8-month-old girl.

However, the couple said that they were told by a juvenile court judge, Scott Johansen, on Tuesday that the child would be removed from their home in Price within seven days and turned over to a heterosexual couple.

“He said he has research to back that children do better in heterosexual homes,” Ms Hoagland told The Salt Lake Tribune.

The judge did not provide details of the research in the court session, but the newspaper said a spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the order.

Caught off-guard

“I was kind of caught off-guard because I didn’t think anything like that would happen anymore,” Ms Peirce said in an interview with KUTV, which was broadcast Wednesday.

The couple plan to appeal the decision, the station reported.

Brent Platt, director of Utah’s child welfare agency, told The Salt Lake Tribune that the agency might appeal the ruling if it felt the “decision is not best for the child”.

A voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages in Utah was overturned last year by federal judges.

New York Times