Bethany v. Jones

Jones (plaintiff) and Bethany (defendant), former same-sex partners, had a child together through donor insemination of Bethany, and Jones served as the child's stay-at-home parent for over three years — the child called her "mommy" and treated Jones's family as her own. After the couple's romantic relationship ended, they initially agreed to keep co-parenting, but Bethany later cut off Jones's contact entirely, claiming Jones was unstable and unsafe. Jones sued for visitation; the trial court found Jones stood in loco parentis to the child and granted visitation as in the child's best interest, and Bethany appealed.

Whether a person may establish visitation rights against a legal parent's wishes when that person functioned, for all practical purposes, as the child's other parent.