Florida Judges Overturns Hateful Gay Adoption Ban

A Florida judge has ruled that the state's thirty-year ban on gay adoptions is offensive, harmful, and unconstitutional. The ruling, the second of its kind this year, allows Martin Gill to formally adopt two children ages four and seven that he has cared for since 2004.

Four years ago before the holidays, Gill was set to move out of the state, but he stayed after a child protection investigator asked him to remain and help give two half-brothers neglected by their parents "a decent Christmas." The brothers were treated so poorly by their birth parents that the then four-year-old was his younger brother's primary caregiver, and refused to talk for almost a month. In the years since, Gill has bought a minivan and provided the children a healthy and stable household. Matt Coles over at the ACLU writes:

The experts say Gill and his partner are model parents, but to me the whole thing sounds terribly ordinary. And that's why Martin Gill is my hero. He gave these kids for whom society could do very little something priceless: an ordinary childhood. I see people like Martin Gill and I want to say: Forget the science. Until all the kids who are without families are taken care of, our opponents should shut up and join us in thanking the heavens that there are people like Martin Gill around.

Lawyers representing Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum argued that gay couples were more likely to be mental cases that abused drugs, arguments that Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman rejected as biased and hateful:

''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,'' [Judge 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 similar ruling earlier this year, Circuit Judge David John Audlin Jr. railed against the injustice of Florida's thirty-year-old ban:

''Disqualifying every gay Floridian from raising a family, enjoying grandchildren or carrying on the family name, based on nothing more than lawful sexual conduct, while assuring child abusers, terrorists, drug dealers, rapists and murderers at least individualized consideration, "Audlin wrote, was so "disproportionately severe'' that it violates the state and U.S. Constitutions.

Florida's Attorney General has announced plans their intention to appeal the case to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hopefully employ the same empathy and reasoning as the lower courts. Something to Be Thankful For [ACLU] Florida ban on gay adoptions ruled unconstitutional [Miami Herald]