Salt Lake City, USA - Children who leave their polygamist families could find it easier to be emancipated under a measure headed for a vote in the Legislature this week.
Referred to as the Lost Boys bill, it allows teens 16 or older to petition a juvenile judge for independence. House Bill 30 is named after the teens who fled or were kicked out of their homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., the base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The proposal would make it easier for abandoned, runaway or homeless teens to enroll in school, get medical care, sign an apartment lease or even stay more than eight hours in a shelter, all of which now require parental consent.
Juvenile judges already can make such determinations, but the proposal would make that option more widely known and spell out how to go about it, said Kristin Brewer, director of the Guardian ad Litem's office. Twenty-nine states have similar laws.*
The bill passed the House and Senate, then was returned to the House for its concurrence on an amendment. A final vote could come Monday.
No one expects there to be a deluge of kids seeking emancipation, because proving self-sufficiency would continue to be a high hurdle.
"It is really going to be those kids who can meet the test and are in a gap situation, like the Lost Boys," Brewer said.
Rep. Lorie D. Fowlke, R-Orem and a family law attorney, said she has had just one inquiry about emancipation of a minor in 12 years of practice.
The Lost Boys may be better equipped than many teens to support themselves. Most were put to work at an early age, typically in construction trades, officials said.
Estimates on the number of Lost Boys varies from 400 to 750 -- the number state officials currently use. That count includes boys ranging in age from 13 to their early 20s who left their families in the past decade.
Some were kicked out when they started watching R-rated movies, dating, smoking cigarettes or using drugs. Some lost faith in the FLDS religion, and some claim they are being driven away to lessen competition for plural wives, the bill's supporters said.
Many have made their way to Dan Fischer, of Sandy, a dentist and entrepreneur who left the FLDS years ago. Fischer has employed the teens at his dental supply company, Ultradent Inc., and uses a nonprofit he created to help them.
Some critics say the state isn't doing enough to enforce laws requiring the parents to support their children. But Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said it's been nearly impossible to get the teens to testify against their parents.
The teens, Shurtleff said, don't blame their parents for their predicament and fear going after them would destroy whatever relationships they still have.