Controversies: A Victory For Gay Rights

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Is a lesbian couple a family? Yes, a Minnesota appeals court ruled last week in a case that has been a focus of gay-rights activism since 1984. Ordering that Karen Thompson, a physical-education professor, be granted guardianship of her brain-damaged lover Sharon Kowalski, the three-judge panel said, "Thompson and Sharon are a family of affinity, which ought to be accorded respect."

Thompson has been fighting for custody since an auto accident left Kowalski brain damaged and quadriplegic eight years ago. Kowalski was in a nursing home under her parents' custody until 1989, when her father concluded that his heart trouble and the strain of the legal challenges prevented him from continuing as guardian. At that time Thompson was bypassed in favor of a close family friend.

Thompson's cause won widespread support from gay-rights groups, which want homosexual partners to enjoy legal rights comparable to those of married couples. The decision, says Paula Ettelbrick, attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, a gay-rights group, "begins the process of recognizing that lesbian and gay couples share the kind of commitment that married couples do."