Court Opinion

ID: 9609623
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:29:14.988721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:09.113196
License: Public Domain

RABINO WITZ, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s ruling that the superior court’s custody award cannot stand because the trial court impermissibly considered the mother’s sexual liaisons, notwithstanding the dearth of evidence demonstrating that this conduct had a detrimental impact on the child or on the parent-child relationship. I cannot emphasize too strongly that trial judges must guard against injecting socialized, stereotyped assumptions and misconceptions into custody decisions.1 Nevertheless, I am compelled to file this separate opinion because I believe the majority has fallen prey to the same kinds of stereotyped views for which the superior court’s custody award is being reversed.
*308The superior court held that the mother’s numerous moves weighed against awarding custody to her, and the majority unquestioningly accepts the trial judge’s unfounded assumption that a child is better off growing up in one abode, in one community, than moving from place to place.2 This assumption is as much a “denigration of a parent’s chosen life style” and a “life style conflict between a ... judge and a parent,” to use the majority’s words, as is the assumption that a parent’s sexual activity adversely affects the parent-child relationship. Moreover, it is an assumption with which many persons would not agree. Although the stability of the home environment is one of the factors that must be considered in making a custody decision, see AS 09.55.-205(5), the fact that the physical location of a child’s home changes may have little or no bearing on the stability of the home. Stability is often a function of parental attitude and not of geography. To use a familiar example, I am certain that many of the servicemen and women in this state would be surprised to learn that they are not providing stable homes for their children because their careers may require frequent moves. On the other hand, the fact that a parent remains rooted in one community provides no guarantee that his or her child will have a stable, loving home.
In sum, I agree with the majority’s disposition of this appeal and with the reasoning therefor; I do not, however, agree that a parent’s nomadic life should be considered relevant in a custody dispute absent evidence that this way of life has a demonstrable impact on the child.

. I do not mean to suggest that a parent’s sexual conduct is beyond scrutiny in a custody dispute. When the court is presented with evidence that a parent’s conduct, sexual or otherwise, has a detrimental — or beneficial — impact on the child, the court may take that evidence into account when fashioning a custody award that is in the child’s best interest.

. When speaking of the parties’ relative abilities to provide a stable home for the child, the majority views as “undeniably relevant” the fact that the father had lived in one place for a number of years, and “[i]n the same vein, the fact that the mother had only recently attempted to create a stable home environment was also entitled to consideration.”