Florida's Anti-gay Adoption Law is Dead

The Florida law forbidding homosexuals in that state to adopt children, adopted in the wake of Anita Bryant's infamous anti-gay campaign in 1977, was overturned last month by a state appeals court. Governor Charlie Crist suspended enforcement of the law, and the Department of Children and Families declined to appeal. But Attorney General Bill McCollum had the right to file an appeal within thirty days of the ruling; yesterday, he issued a written statement saying he would not do so, marking the end of this bullshit law.

Suck it, Anita.

Mike Thomas, writing in the Orlando Sentinel, details the story of foster parents Mike Gill and his partner from the moment two sick, dirty, extremely neglected kids were thrust into their hands by the State of Florida at Christmas, 2004. Will break your heart and make you furious, but it's good reading.

Video report on the family from the ACLU:



In The Life Media gives further background on the political history of Florida's homophobic adoption ban from Anita Bryant's campaign up till now. Part I:



Part II:



Dan Savage goes straight to the heart of the matter with a brilliant explanation of the truth about gay adoption:



What I say:  Your Head Trucker thinks Florida has come a long way just in my lifetime. Here's a clip of a police officer from the Miami vice squad threatening to make life "a living hell" for an auditorium full of middle-school kids in 1966 - and your Head Trucker was exactly that age at the time. Thank God I never was subjected to a speech like this, which would have scared the bejeezus out of me; it was bad enough picking up the generalized homophobia from the culture, without a direct threat from an arrogant police bull. 

This isn't a put-on.  He wasn't some weirdo spouting strange ideas:  he was the norm at that time, before Stonewall, when nobody was out.  How could they be?  Imagine being a young person as I was then, and the horror of your true sexuality dawning on you - making you not a fully human person, but a hideous, monstrous thing in the eyes of everyone, if they only knew.  Including your best friends.  Including your own parents.  Including God Himself.

Watch this and realize the overwhelming hatred and fear of the era - which your Head Trucker has never forgotten: