Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, December 20, 1991 Page: 10 of 40
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Sharon Kowalski—free at last
Minnesota appeals court rules disabled woman's lover
is legally entitled to guardianship, ending 7-year battle
By Tammye Nash
After seven years of legal battles,
Karen Thompson this week won legal
guardianship of her disabled lover,
Sharon Kowalski, who was left brain-
damaged and quadriplegic after a 1983
car accident.
The ruling granting guardianship to
Thompson was handed down by a
Minnesota court of appeals —
overturning a lower court decision — on
Tuesday, Dec. 17, the 12th anniversary
of Thompson’s and Kowalski’s
commitment ceremony held Dec. 19,
1979.
“The nightmare it finally over,”
Thompson declared Tuesday after the
appeals court’s decision was announced.
Calling the decision “the best
anniversary present we could ever
receive,” Thompson said that the ruling
“is not a victory. It’s a ‘just’ decision, a
‘right’ decision that should have been
made years ago.”
Thompson’s attorney, M. Sue
Wilson, called the ruling “a landmark
statement that could potentially affect
the lives of thousands of Minnesotans.”
The ruling reinforces “the right of adults
to- choose their own guardians,
regardless of sexual orientation or
physical disability,” Wilson said.
As a result of the 1983 accident,
Kowalski suffered severe brain injuries,
leaving her with severe deficits in short-
term memory, impaired speech and
other health problems. She is also
Confined to a wheelchair. She currently
resides at Trevilla of Robbinsdale, a
nursing home in Robbinsdale,
Minnesota, outside Minneapolis.
Thompson and Kowalski shared a home
in St. Cloud, Minnesota where
Thompson still lives in a house she has
made completely wheelchair-accessible.
Thompson’s legal battles began in
1984 when both she and Sharon’s
parents, Donald and Della Kowalski,
filed suit seeking guardianship of
Sharon. At that time, Thompson and
Sharon had exchanged rings and had
named each other as beneficiaries on
their life insurance policies.
The original trial court granted
guardianship to Sharon’s parents.
Thompson initially ^agreed to the
arrangement provided she was allowed
visitation rights, but Donald Kowalski
obtained a court order in 1985
prohibiting Thompson from seeing
Sharon. The two women’s forced
separation last three-and-a-half years.
In 1989, following continuing legal
battles, a trial court granted Thompson
visitation rights, allowing her to take
Kowalski home two weekends each
month. At that time, the court ordered
that Kowalski be evaluated by neutral;,
court-appointed experts. During
subsequent hearings, each of the court-
appointed medical experts testified that
Kowalski responded better to Thompson
than to anyone else, that Thompson has
shown the highest degree of
commitment to Kowalski’s welfare, and
that Kowalski has consistently and
reliably expressed her desire to live with
Thompson.
In 1990, citing his own health
problems, Donald Kowalski formally
relinquished guardianship of his
daughter, and on Aug. 7 of that year
Thompson filed a petition asking to be
designated as succeeding guardian.
Thompson’s petition was denied, and
the court instead named Karen
Tomberfin. Tomberlin is Kowalski’s
former physical education teacher and a
friend of the Kowalski family who had
never petitioned to be Sharon’s
guardian.
On May 29 of this year, Thompson
requested a new trial, but mer motion
was denied. She then appealed the
decision to the Minnesota Court of
Appeals.
During the trial before the appeals
court, Wilson argued that the trial court
had repeatedly ignored Kowalski’s stated
preference to return home to St. Cloud
with Thompson, despite testimony from
medical experts that Kowalski had the
capacity to make and understand such
decisions. The experts had also testified,
Wilson noted, that Thompson’s
interaction is “one of the most important
factors in promoting Sharon’s continued
physical health and emotional well-
being, and that no medical evidence to
the contrary had been presented.
In overturning the lower court
ruling, the appeals court declared that
the evidence clearly showed that
Thompson was the most qualified
person to be Kowalski's guardian, and
that Kowalski had “reliably expressed”
her preference to live with Thompson.
The appeals court described Thompson
and Sharon Kowalski as “a family of
affinity, which ought to be accorded
respect.”
The facts of the case had converged
with a historical decision in the gay and
lesbian rights movement to seek
expanded protections for homosexual
partners, transforming the case into
something of a cause celebre for
activists. After the court ruling
appointing Tomberlin as Sharon’s
guardian, a coalition of organizations
was formed which submitted briefs in
support of Thompson’s case to the
Minnesota Court of Appeals. One of
those organizations was the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Ivy
Young, director of NGLTF’s Gay and
Lesbian Families Project, this week
applauded the appeals court decision,
calling it a “very important ruling that
addresses several very important issues.”
“Everyone is certainly thrilled with
the decision, and we all celebrate with
Sharon and Karen,” Young said. “This
case means so many things; there are so
many issues involved. It means — at
least in Minnesota, at least in this case —
that the rights of lesbians, and by
Karen Thompson
extension gay men and bisexuals, to
protect the families they create have
been affirmed.
“It is also a very important decision
in terms of the rights of the disabled,”
Young continued. “This ruling says that
when people with disabilities can
articulate a choice, that choice should be
respected. This appeals court has said
that people with disabilities have rights,
and that they are not reduced to
childlike status in the judicial system.”
The case also points up some
“important lessons that the lesbian and
gay community has learned and
continued to learn,” Young continued.
“First of all, the fact that this case went
through seven long and tortuous years
clearly indicates that homophobia is
alive and well in the United States
judicial system. If Sharon and Karen had
been a heterosexual married couple,
none of this would have happened.
Second — and this is something that
Karen has stressed all along — we’ve
learned that lesbian and gay couples
must protect their relationships. Because
we are denied the protections that
marriage automatically bestows on
heterosexual couples, we have to find
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DALLAS VOICE
DECEMBER 20, 1991
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, December 20, 1991, newspaper, December 20, 1991; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615788/m1/10/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.