Court Opinion

ID: 9669760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:09:02.454689+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:00.128429
License: Public Domain

Mues, Judge,
concurring.
I write simply to clarify that I have no philosophical disagreement with the general tenor of the dissent and in particular with its conviction that a child’s exposure to parental conduct which is at odds with the family moral code impairs that child’s moral training, including his or her reactions to sexual yearnings. While I pretend no psychological expertise, common sense and experience suggest that is true. And I believe it to be true whether the conduct in question is an indiscreet heterosexual or homosexual extramarital relationship.
If this case had involved Carol’s live-in relationship with a male, I expect our decision to affirm would have passed with little note. That decision is certainly consistent with current legal precedent in such matters, whether morally correct or not, and I am reluctant to suggest that a different rule be applied in this instance, particularly on the evidence before us.
Our standard of review is limited to judging the trial court’s decision for an abuse of discretion. The evidence presented here, to which that standard must be applied, is that knowledge of her mother’s sexual relationship has had no harmful effect on Jacqueline. However difficult my sense of the “common” might make my understanding of the “uncommon,” I simply cannot ignore that evidence.