Cleveland--A gay lawyer and community leader is coming under fire for advancing an argument in a Juvenile Court case that would typically be made by anti-gay attorneys trying to deny LGBT rights.

Tim Downing, an openly gay partner at the Cleveland law firm of Ulmer and Berne, is also on the board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign and a statewide LGBT community leader and organizer.

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These cases generally rest on the biological parent giving up exclusive custody in favor of a shared arrangement that honors the relationship between the child and the non-biological parent.

In this case, Downing and his associate, Joseph Simms, argue that the non-biological mother has no right to that claim, and that the suit should be dismissed because she is not related by blood or marriage.