W.Va. Court Awards Gay Partner Custody

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:35 p.m. ET

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The state's highest court on Friday gave custody of a 5-year-old boy to his dead mother's lesbian partner, despite the protests of the woman's blood relatives.

Tina Burch had appealed to the West Virginia Supreme Court for custody of the son of her partner, Christina Smarr, who died in a 2002 car accident. Within hours of her death, Smarr's relatives had given the child to his grandparents.