http://wvgazette.com/section/News/Today/2004091632
September 17, 2004
By Toby Coleman
Staff Writer
ina Burch says she never wanted to tell this story.
It starts in 1999, when she helped her lesbian lover, Christina D. Smarr, find a man to impregnate her. It moves through pregnancy, the birth of a healthy boy and the establishment of an untraditional two-mom household in Clay County.
“If anybody asks,” Burch recalls telling her teenage daughter after the boy’s birth on Christmas Day 1999, “keep this within the family.”
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That ended in a snap two years ago, when Burch fell asleep at the wheel and got into a wreck that killed Smarr. Burch and Smarr’s parents fell into a pitched custody battle for the boy. Soon, the world began learning about Burch’s unusual story.
The state Supreme Court is preparing to consider the case this spring, and its decision could help decide whether homosexuals who help raise children can ever get custody of a same-sex partner’s child.