by Robert H. Knight

About the author: Robert H. Knight is the director of cultural studies at the Family Research Council and author of the monograph Sexual Disorientation: Faulty Research in the Homosexual Debate.

In deciding who should raise children, society’s primary concern must be what is in the best interest of the child. Parents’ rights should be protected and the state should intrude only when a child is in a high-risk situation. An openly homosexual household constitutes such a risk.

This issue is climaxing in child custody litigation, with mixed rulings. In June 1994, a Virginia appeals court overruled a decision to award custody of a 2year-old boy to his grandmother because his mother, Sharon Lynne Bottoms, has a live-in lesbian lover. The appeals court ruled that the mother...