Florida Judge Rules Gay Adoption Ban in Unconstitutional

In the right-wing war on LGBT America, we continue to win a few and lose a few.  Today, we won one.  The Miami Herald reports that Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman has ruled that Florida’s 30-year ban on adoption by gays and lesbians is unconstitutional.  Another court came to a similar conclusion back in August, when Monroe Circuit Judge David John Audlin Jr. wrote that Florida’s 1977 gay adoption ban arose out of ”unveiled expressions of bigotry,” according to the Herald.

The Miami-Dade case was brought by North Miami gay foster father Frank Gill, who wants to adopt the two foster children he and his partner have raised since 2004, when the boys were removed from an abusive home.  The heterosexual parents of the two half-brothers had their parental rights terminated in 2006.  It would seem hard to justify denying children a safe, loving home for the singular purpose of continuing a political strategy to deny LGBT rights.  To face the details of neglect and abuse in many straight family households and still claim that any heterosexual parent is a better parent is one giant leap of logic.  Consider the details in the case of the two children (referred to as John and James Doe to protect their identities) who arrived as foster kids at the home of Frank Gill and his partner Tom Roe, Sr. on December 11, 2004, as documented in the court’s ruling:

John, the elder sibling, arrived with his four-month old brother wearing a dirty adult sized t-shirt and sneakers four sizes too small that seemed more like flip-flops than shoes. Both children were suffering from scalp ringworm. Although John was clearly suffering from a severe case of ringworm, the medication brought from John’s home to treat his scalp was unopened and expired. James, too, suffered from an untreated ear infection, as evidenced by the one-month old, nearly unused, medication. John did not speak and had no affect. He had one concern: changing, feeding, and caring for his baby brother. It was clear from the children’s first evening at the Petitioner-Roe home that the baby’s main caretaker was John, his four year old brother.

On that December evening, John and James left a world of chronic neglect, emotional impoverishment and deprivation to enter a new world, foreign to them, that was nurturing, safe, structured and stimulating. Although Petitioner and Roe had fostered other children, caring for John was the most challenging of their foster care experiences. For the first few months, John seemed depressed and presented a void, unresponsive demeanor and appearance. Upon arriving at the (Gill/Roe) home, John did not speak a word for about one week.  After two weeks, he began to mumble imperceptible utterances. After about one month, John finally began speaking. (Gill) quickly learned that John had never seen a book, could not distinguish letters from numbers, could not identify colors and could not count. He could not hold a pencil.

You can read the court’s complete ruling, which includes expert testimony on the effect of gay parenting on children (none), on The Miami Herald’s Website here.

Valerie Martin, the attorney who argued against gay adoption for a week during the early October trial, has already filed a notice of appeal.  Martin represents the Florida Department of Children and Families on behalf of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.