As the film "The Kids are All Right" sets to open in Royal Oak next week, I find it ironic, and hopeful, that we will all rush to see a film about this modern family, many of us belonging to one quite similar.
I hope this film helps enlighten the straight public – and those in the judicial system – that families are very much 'mo-dern, as BTL calls it ("'Mo-dern Family," BTL Issue 1828). And right here in our own backyard, we have a local woman battling in the court system to regain visitation and joint custody of her three children, conceived with a sperm donor, and raised jointly in a "mo"dern lesbian family.
Unfortunately in this case, the biological mom cheats on the partnership of 19 years and, a year and a half after the split, decides to pull rank and rip the children away from the non-bio mother after 10 years.
The irony? This "mo"dern family now becomes modern in custody battles that do not recognize same-sex parenting in Michigan.
As we all watch this film, chuckling and lusting over Annette and Julianne, please keep in mind this local woman, who is fighting with her life to see her children, to change Michigan law, and to help others in her same situation so that "parents" are never denied their children based on same-sex and non-biological issues. For more information contact council for Renee Harmon, Dana Nessle, at 313-963-4529, and follow this ever-important case as they now continue the fight in the Michigan Supreme Court.
Juli Seymour
