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U.S.|In 1975, Gay Moms Rarely Got Custody. So She Took Her Child Underground.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/us/lesbian-mothers-underground-kidnapping.html
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Georgette called it a rescue. This is how she remembers it:
It was the fall of 1975, and she and her husband were separated. He had taken their 3-year-old daughter, Kara, and moved her to another state. Georgette wanted to fight for custody, but she knew she probably wouldn’t win. She was a lesbian, and the family courts almost never sided with gay parents.
Convinced she had no other choice, she bypassed the courts entirely. Georgette and three other women drove to her husband’s home in Michigan. His twin brother, Roy, answered the door.
One of the women, older and sophisticated, posed as a real estate agent. Two others stood close behind, shielding Georgette and chatting with Roy to create a distraction.
Georgette stepped through the entryway. “Kara,” she said. She wrapped the little girl in a blanket and turned toward the door. Roy blinked in confusion, Georgette recalled.
“George? What are you doing here, can we talk?” he asked.
“No,” she responded, heading to the car and to a new life with her daughter.
Kara’s memory is spottier, but she is sure of some things. She was playing with her doll, Linda, when her mother arrived. The women put her in the car so fast the doll was left behind. Kara, in the back seat, pressed her forehead to the car window, not wanting to look at anyone. She remembers drops of rain on the window. Streetlights passing by. Darkness.
