S3E10: Lisa Miller
To close our season, the story of Lisa Miller, an American woman who gave birth to a child coparented with her partner Janet Jenkins, and then left Janet, became a self-proclaimed ex-lesbian, sued for single custody of their daughter, and when the courts decided against her, abducted their child and fled the country with the assistance of well-connected far-right pastors in 2009. Lisa and their daughter, Isabella, are still missing.
SOURCES:
Ball, Carlos A. The Right to Be Parents: LGBT Families and the Transformation of Parenthood. New York, NY: NYU Press, 2012.
Bollinger, Alex. “A Man Who Helped Kidnap a Lesbian’s Daughter Blames It All on Obama.” LGBTQ Nation, December 5, 2018. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/12/man-helped-kidnap-lesbians-daughter-blames-obama/.
Eckholm, Erik. “Virginia Pastor Sentenced for Aiding Parental Kidnapping.” The New York Times, March 4, 2013, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/us/kenneth-miller-convicted-of-aiding-in-parental-kidnapping.html.
———. “Which Mother for Isabella? Civil Union Ends in an Abduction and Questions.” The New York Times, July 28, 2012, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/us/a-civil-union-ends-in-an-abduction-and-questions.html.
Edwards, David. “Fischer Calls for ‘Underground Railroad’ to Kidnap Children of LGBT Parents.” RawStory, August 8, 2012. https://www.rawstory.com/2012/08/fischer-calls-for-underground-railroad-to-kidnap-children-of-lgbt-parents/.
“Legal Recognition of LGBT Families.” San Francisco, Calif.: The National Center for Lesbian Rights, 2019. http://www.nclrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Legal_Recognition_of_LGBT_Families.pdf.
“Man Who Helped Rob Lesbian Mom of Her Child Sentenced to 3 Years.” LGBTQ Nation, March 23, 2017. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/03/man-helped-rob-lesbian-mom-child-sentenced-3-years/.
“Queer Kids of Queer Parents Against Gay Marriage!” Accessed May 14, 2020. https://queerkidssaynomarriage.wordpress.com/.
Rudolph, Dana. “A Very Brief History of LGBTQ Parenting.” Family Equality (blog), October 20, 2017. https://www.familyequality.org/2017/10/20/a-very-brief-history-of-lgbtq-parenting/.
“The Kidnapping of Isabella.” Birmingham, AL: Southern Poverty Law Center, February 15, 2017. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2017/kidnapping-isabella.
Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.
Image via: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/us/new-charges-are-brought-in-same-sex-custody-case.html