A Miami-Dade
circuit judge decided Tuesday that a Florida man's sexual
orientation should not preclude him from adopting his two
foster children, effectively ruling unconstitutional a
decades-old state law barring gays and lesbians from
adopting children.
Judge Cindy
Lederman, a child welfare judge, found that the state law
has "no rational basis" and ruled that Frank Martin
Gill, 47, should be entitled to adopt two young boys
he has been fostering for the past four years, reports
CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami. The Florida law,
dating back to Anita Bryant's 1977 homophobic "Save Our
Children" crusade, allowed gays and lesbians to foster
children but prohibited them from adopting.
The two boys, who
are now 4 and 8, had been living with abusive,
crack-addicted parents and were removed from their home by
the Department of Children and Family Services. Both
the department and the attorney general support the
state law blocking adoptions by gay people.
According to a
statement from the pro-gay Family Equality Council, if the
state supreme court takes action on the case and affirms the
ruling, the law would be overturned.
"Judge Lederman's
ruling is a long-overdue recognition of the equal
ability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to
raise happy, healthy families," said Jennifer
Chrisler, executive director the Family Equality
Council.
A study by the
Family Equality Council found that more than 65,000
adopted children in the United States are being raised by
gay and lesbian parents. Florida was the only state to
expressly bar gay people from adopting. Arkansas
voters recently passed a ballot measure to
bar all unmarried couples from adopting or fostering
children.
On Election Day,
Florida was one of three states to pass a ban on
same-sex marriage. Sixty-two percent of Florida voters cast
ballots in favor of the ban. Two previously existing
statutes in the state already prohibited same-sex
marriage, including the statewide Defense of Marriage
Act adopted in 1997. (Kerry Eleveld and Ross von Metzke,
The Advocate)
