One reason to support marriage for gays...

Had the State allowed marriage for gays, this lawsuit would never have happened.

The West Virginia Supreme Court on Friday gave the lesbian partner of a deceased woman the parental rights over a 5-year-old child the two had been raising together.

The court recognized 39-year-old Tina Burch of Clay County, the lesbian partner of the late Christina Smarr, as the “psychological parent” of the boy, then ruled it would be in the best interest of the child to stay with Burch.

Smarr’s parents had been fighting Burch’s attempt to gain permanent custody of the child. The slim 3-2 decision is the first time the state’s high court has recognized the standing of a gay or lesbian parent to be a “psychological parent” and to grant them legal custody on that basis.

The court took into account that Burch and Smarr had planned for the birth of a child more than a year before he was born, finding a man to impregnate Smarr and then jointly raising the child.

“Thus, there unquestionably exists a relationship of significant duration between Tina [Burch] and [the child] in which Tina [Burch] has provided for the physical, psychological, financial and emotional needs of [the child] and such that the child regards Tina [Burch] as a parental figure in his life,” Justice Robin Davis wrote for the majority.