Court Opinion

ID: 9571802
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:35:18.714655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:30:59.538283
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring in part; dissenting in part).
I join the writing of the Chief Justice concerning the reversal of the trial court on the liberal grant of visitation unto the lesbian mother. For years, she has followed a life of perversion and openly flaunted it before these children. At the hour of judicial atonement, she now pretends to have changed. This present facade is of transitory mood and a cunning plan, by employing a psycholpgist, to wrest away good judgment from the judicial officers hereunto attending this case.
Lesbian mother has harmed these children forever. To give her rights of reasonable visitation so that she can teach them to be homosexuals, would be the zenith of poor judgment for the judiciary of this state. Until such time that she can establish, after years of therapy and demonstrated conduct, that she is no longer a lesbian living a life of abomination {see Leviticus 18:22), she should be totally es-topped from contaminating these children.1 After years of treatment, she could then petition for rights of visitation. My point is: she is not fit for visitation at this time. Her conduct is presently harmful to these children. Thus, she should have no visitation. L. v. D., 630 S.W.2d 240 (Mo.App.1982). See, also, S.E.G. v. R.A.G., 735 S.W.2d 164 (Mo.Ct.App.1987). Therein, the court ordered restricted visitation. Said case supports the Chief Justice of this state. In Kallas.v. Kallas, 614 P.2d 641 (Utah 1980), the court approved of restrictions to prevent harmful effects upon children. Some courts have taken a position, under “sodomy statutes” that a homosexual partner (parent) is a criminal and therefore not a fit parent. See, 102 Harvard L.Rev. 620-621 (January 1989). Note SDCL 22-22-2 setting forth acts constituting sodomy in this state. SDCL 22-22-1 defines rape as a felony. It appears that homosexuals, such as Lisa Chicoine, are committing felonies, by their acts against nature and God. Actus naturae, actus Deus. This is an old Latin phrase, which became a legal maxim.2 Literally, it means an act against nature is an act against God. As of four years ago, twenty-four states and the District of Columbia imposed criminal sanctions on consenting adults who engage in private homosexual intercourse. See, Note, Constitutional Challenges To Sodomy Statutes In the Context of Homosexual Activity After Bowers v. Hardwick, S.D.L.Rev. 323 (1987). In the case of In re B., 86 Misc.2d 515, 380 N.Y.S.2d 848 (1976), mother lost custody to father, after she admitted to being a homosexual. In said case, various experts testified to the emotional problems suffered by children being exposed to such a lifestyle. In the case before this Court, the record reflects, by expert testimony, that there existed harmful effects to these children by their contin*897ued exposure to Lisa Chicoine’s homosexual behavior and lifestyle.
There appears to be a transitory phenomenon on the American scene that homosexuality is okay. Not so. The Bible decries it. Even the pagan “Egyptian Book of the Dead” bespoke against it. E.A. Wallis Budge (trans.), New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1968, p. 578. Kings could not become heavenly beings if they had lain with men. In other words, even the pagans, centuries ago, before the birth of Jesus Christ, looked upon it as total defilement.3 This case is in a divorce setting. If it were under the juvenile code of this state, rights to a child could be totally terminated, through a petition, by reason of “environment ... injurious to the child’s welfare” imposed by parents upon a child. SDCL 26-8A-2(3); SDCL 26-8A-26. If petition is sustained, after a dispositional hearing, rights may be terminated by the court. SDCL 26-8A-27.
In J.L.P.(H.) v. D.J.P., 643 S.W.2d 865 (Mo.Ct.App.1982) that court held that the trial court did not err in restricting visitation of a homosexual father. At page 870 thereof, it quotes a New York Supreme Court case and a New Jersey Superior Court case, both jurisdictions severely curtailing visitation rights. In re Jane B., 85 Misc.2d 515, 380 N.Y.S.2d 848 (1976); In re J.S. & C., 129 NJ.Super. 486, 324 A.2d 90 (1974), aff'd per curiam, 142 N.J.Super. 499, 362 A.2d 54 (1976).
Here, Lisa Chicoine’s conduct is so aggravated and her mental dementia is so apparent, that until she has years of treatment, she should not have any visitation at all. She can order to show cause to have visitation when it is established she will not harm these children further.
On issue two, I dissent. In my opinion, the trial court’s division of property was an abuse of discretion. It was not soundly and substantially based upon the evidence. Goehry v. Goekry, 354 N.W.2d 192 (S.D.1984).
Lisa received an award of approximately 46% of all property acquired after the marriage. This marriage lasted seven years but she abandoned the marriage several years before to engage in a series of affairs with homosexual “lovers.” She bought a diamond ring costing $1,000.00 for a recent female “lover” from the fruits of this young farmer’s labor. Raising crops by the sweat of your brow, and an investment in machinery, is to advance the family, not to serve abominable conduct. Her contribution to the accumulation of assets was extremely limited.
When Lisa was deep into her homosexuality conduct-leaving the home — not attending the children — spending money in bars and on gifts to a “lover,” the husband inherited property. Trial court included inherited property in its award to Lisa. Her hands are unclean; she is not in the court system with clean hands. Peterson v. Peterson, 449 N.W.2d 835 (S.D.1989) (Henderson, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part); Kane v. Schnitzler, 376 N.W.2d 337 (S.D.1985); Stach v. Stach, 369 N.W.2d 132 (S.D.1985); Valley Bank v. Dowdy, 337 N.W.2d 164 (S.D.1983). She does not deserve this kind of “equity.” It is inequitable for her to receive a part of his inheritance. Further, Lisa came into the marriage with her clothes and an old indebted automobile, whereas Michael Chi-cóme owned substantial property, crops, livestock and cash. He was then a successful farmer. Trial court failed to take into consideration the parties’ contribution to the accumulation of the property. In fairness to Lisa, she did contribute as a homemaker for a little under three years. Evidence reflects that her contributions to farm labor were minimal, at best. Her domestic services requires that she be awarded some property and cash. Inter alia, Lisa was “awarded” $19,000 in cash which she secretly took at separation. *898Such unmitigated gall in taking the fruits of this young farmer’s labor should be punished, not rewarded. The trial court, additionally, awarded her $41,912.00 in cash. This compounded and perpetuated an existing wrong for it rewards a rejection of the good things in the sacrament of marriage. I would pray that God help the decent hardworking young farmers and ranchers of this state. They have a tough road to hoe and they are rapidly becoming extinct. They are the vanishing Americans of this era, not the Mohicans. May the fires of matrimonial hell prevail against them not. In the property award, she has received far more than she deserved considering her minimal contributions to the marriage (indeed, she destroyed it) and her slight efforts to the accumulation of marital property. I would reverse the trial court on the property distribution; it is unfair and an abuse of discretion. Temple v. Temple, 365 N.W.2d 561 (S.D.1985). Under the rationale of the trial court, this cash award is in lieu of an award of real property. The real property was acquired after she, de facto, quit the marriage, to “lay with a woman.” So she had no equitable rights to real property, accumulated by her husband, without one whit of effort on her part.
CAVEAT
A caption in an article from the Arizona Republic dated December 27, 1991, taken from the San Francisco Examiner: Radical Gay Group Dead After Infighting. Extracted portions are quoted: “The radical gay group Queer Nation is dead — a victim of its success in offending not only mainstream culture but its own membership as well.” “It was an incredible free-for-all” at the end, member Alan Carson said. “People, mostly women, began to feel alienated,” he said. “Some people were grabbing all the opportunities and the spotlight, drowning out a more diverse array of voices.” “Disputes reportedly were resolved through screaming matches.”
There is hope for our Nation. We have witnessed an upheaval in the churches over sexual ethics. This was recently epitomized in the Presbyterian Church (USA) which, essentially, knocked down efforts to condone sex relations of homosexuals.

. Every judicial decision of consequence, in my opinion, reflects a moral judgment.

. For those who advocate that exercising a moral judgment is a violation of separation of "church and state," may I express: Those advocates would turn the First Amendment on its head proposing, in effect, that any belief can be fully exercised except religious belief. Judges have values, or should have. We need not be value-neutral. Why must I, or any judge, e.g., follow Freud or Marx?

. Article VI of the United States Constitution provides that, inter alia, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust of the United States.” Notice the word "ever.” Too many constitutional scholars engage in careless theory concerning church-state conflict; this thought process, often, is an effort to impose a religious gag upon judges of our country.