Would give parental rights to stepparents who raise children.

A bill intended to extend parental rights to stepparents who raise children is stalled in the Senate by concerns it could give similar rights to gay people.

"This bill is one of the worst of the 2008 session and must be killed," Frank Mylar, an attorney and conservative activist, wrote in an e-mail to senators this week.

Mylar said the legislation would "gut" the Utah Supreme Court's ruling last year in a same-sex custody battle between Cheryl Barlow and her former domestic partner, Keri Jones. The court ruled that, because Jones had no biological relationship with the child, under Utah law she had no parental visitation rights.

"This bill, if it becomes law, would place Utah with the most liberal states in the nation . . . in enabling homosexuals to obtain parental rights, even against the wishes of a fit parent," wrote Mylar.

The Senate gave SB186 preliminary approval Monday, but it has been stalled since, as its sponsor, Sen. Lyle Hillyard tries to address the concerns raised by Mylar, the Utah Eagle Forum and Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi.

Hillyard says his bill doesn't give same-sex partners any legal standing, and that was never his intent.

"When you read the legislation and what I'm trying to do, it's just so far off," said Hillyard, a Republican family law attorney from Logan.

A homosexual couple couldn't get legal standing under the bill, he said, because they were never in a legally recognized relationship. But as it stands in the wake of the Barlow case, stepparents and others with no biological tie to the children are prohibited from going to the courts to seek custody or visitation rights.

"We're closing the door on a very significant group in our society who have been very meaningful parents," Hillyard said. He added there are some proposed changes to the bill he believes should address the concerns and allow the measure to clear the Senate.

Sen. Scott McCoy, a Salt Lake City Democrat who is gay, said during debate Monday that he wishes the bill went further in extending some parental rights to same-sex couples, but it doesn't do that.

"I don't understand where Frank is coming from in claiming this in some way grants parental right to a non-biological child in a gay relationship. I can't fathom how it does," McCoy, an attorney, said Wednesday.