Fla. Judge: Gay Adoption OK

Frank Gill and one of his adopted sons.

This just in from the Miami Herald:

A Miami-Dade circuit judge Tuesday declared Florida's 30-year-old ban on gay adoption unconstitutional, allowing a North Miami man to adopt two foster kids he has raised since 2004.

In a 53-page order that sets the stage for what could become a constitutional showdown, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman permitted 47-year-old Frank Gill to adopt the 4- and 8-year-old boys he and his partner have raised since just before Christmas four years ago. A child abuse investigator had asked Gill to care for the boys temporarily; they were never able to return to their birth parents.

''This is the forum where we try to heal children, find permanent families for them so they can get another chance at what every child should know and feel from birth, and go on to lead productive lives,'' Lederman said in court before releasing the order. ``We pray for them to thrive, but that is a word we rarely hear in dependency court.''

''These children are thriving; it is uncontroverted,'' the judge added. . . .

In a ruling that, at times, reads more like a social science research paper, Lederman dissected 30 years worth of psychological and sociological research, concluding that studies overwhelmingly have shown that gay people can parent every bit as effectively as straight people and do no harm to their children.

''Based on the evidence presented from experts from all over this country and abroad,'' Lederman wrote, ``it is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent. Sexual orientation no more leads to psychiatric disorders, alcohol and substance abuse, relationship instability, a lower life expectancy or sexual disorders than race, gender, socioeconomic class or any other demographic characteristic.

''The most important factor in ensuring a well-adjusted child is the quality of parenting,'' Lederman wrote.

Attorneys for the State of Florida are appealing today's order to a higher court.

Florida is the only state in the union with statutory language explicitly banning all "homosexuals," individuals or couples, from adopting children. (Other states, like Utah and Mississippi, achieve the same result by forbidding same-sex couples or anyone not legally married to adopt.)

The Florida law was enacted in 1977 after a strident campaign against all gay-rights laws by Anita Bryant, former Miss Oklahoma and TV pitchwoman for the citrus industry.

Since then the Florida Department of Children and Families, whose attorneys argued in favor of upholding the anti-gay ban, has used many gay men and women as foster parents or permanent guardians to relieve its bulging caseload . . . but not as adoptive parents.

Which is why the DCF attorneys' argument fell flat on its face when they tried to claim that gay people are inherently unfit parents. More stupid-shit bald-faced-lie hypocrisy based ultimately on a narrow-minded religious belief. The state's star expert witness was a psychologist who is also a Southern Baptist minister; the judge found his testimony to be warped by his theological convictions.

Suck it, Anita.