they should remain . '' `` You ca n't shop them around to another state , '' Price said . `` Virginia really had no choice but to enforce judgments and judicial orders from Vermont . '' Vermont is one of the few states that allow same-sex partners to enter into a civil union . Two years after Vermont recognized Miller and Jenkins ' relationship , Miller gave birth to a daughter , Isabella , conceived through artificial insemination . The relationship deteriorated , and Miller and the baby moved to Virginia . A Vermont court later granted Miller a dissolution of the civil union and granted custody of the child to her and visitation rights to Jenkins . Miller then asked the courts in Virginia -- which does not recognize same-sex unions or marriages -- to take jurisdiction of the dispute . A Virginia state judge eventually ruled that Jenkins had no `` parentage or visitation rights . '' The Virginia high court ruling Friday returned the case to Vermont 's control , meaning Jenkins can visit the girl , who is now 6 . Miller 's attorney , Mathew Staver , said he was `` disappointed the state
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A woman who helped raise a child with her female partner in Vermont before the pair split can visit the girl in Virginia even though that state does n't recognize same-sex unions , a court ruled Friday . Janet Jenkins with Isabella , the daughter she helped raise with former partner Lisa Miller . Virginia 's Supreme Court ruled that Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller 's civil union in 2000 gave Vermont , and its law on same-sex unions , jurisdiction over their subsequent custody and visitation disputes . Miller moved to Virginia with the child in 2003 , and a Vermont court granted Jenkins visitation rights . But Miller took the case to a Virginia court , which ruled that Jenkins had no such rights there . The case was considered by legal experts to be the first conflict between two state courts over a major legal question arising from same-sex unions . Jenkins ' attorney , Joseph Price of the Washington law firm Arent Fox , said Friday 's ruling `` just affirms the old principle that when these kinds of custody and visitation disputes begin in one state , that 's where