Appeals court sides with lesbian mother, overturns custody ruling
JIM SUHR
Associated Press


ST. LOUIS - A Missouri appeals court has tossed out a judge's ruling that limited a mother's overnight visitation with her daughter to when the woman wasn't sleeping with her lesbian partner, saying there's no proof such a condition was best for the child.

Tuesday's ruling by a Missouri Court of Appeals panel ordered the case reheard by a Franklin County judge, declaring there was no evidence at trial that Rachel Dickens' lesbian cohabitation endangered the health or impaired the emotional development of the child, now 6.

"The record before us does not support such an implicit finding," Judge Booker T. Shaw wrote for the three-judge appeals panel.