Judge Rules in Favor of Gay Couple in Custody Dispute

A New Jersey judge has ruled in favor of a gay couple in a contentious custody battle over 5-year-old twin girls.

Donald Robinson Hollingsworth and Sean Hollingsworth, who live in New Jersey and were married in California, had fought for full custody of the girls. But the surrogate in the case, Robinson Hollingsworth's sister, sought custody after a fall-out with her brother and his partner, claiming she had been coerced into a contractual agreement because of her disadvantaged financial situation at the time.

But the judge in the case ruled last week that the couple had provided a stable environment for the children and should be granted full custody.

The sister's stance against homosexuality "will be understood by the girls and will have a very damaging effect on them. It will make them feel ashamed of themselves," Hudson County Superior Court judge Francis Schultz ruled in opposing joint legal custody.

"This decision is a victory for parents, particularly those in nontraditional families who value diversity and inclusion and pass those values along to their children," Hollingsworths' attorney, Karim Kaspar, told the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Read the story here.