A Victory for Children

The news broke mid-day today: a three-judge panel on Florida's Third District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling out of Miami which found the state's ban on gay people being adoptive parents UNconstitutional. The court found "no rational basis" for this discriminatory statute, especially in light of the, ummm, "facts" presented by the Department of Children and Families.

What were those "facts"? The Department claimed that it would behoove children to be raised in a two-parent heterosexual household to avoid the stigma of "gay". However, according to the facts, DCF places a third of the eligible children for adoption in single-parent homes. The Department's leading expert, George Rekers (of the Rent-A-Boy sex scandal fame), presented testimony that gay couples were prone to substance abuse, much the same (according to Rekers) as Native Americans. Say what?? The Department actually tried to assert that LGBT households were boiler pots of domestic violence. The fact is that 95-percent of female homocides in Florida came at the hands of their heterosexual male partners! About the only thing DCF put forward that was a correct assertion: that there isn't a real difference between heterosexual and gay people when it comes to their ability to be parents. Gee, thanks!

The real facts of this case: a gay man named Frank Gill and his long-time partner have been exemplary foster parents for the state of Florida. The men have been fostering two children who were taken from a home because they were being neglected. One was four, the other four-months. Both were poorly clothed, had ringworm and the four-year-old wasn't talking. After living with Gill and his partner, the kids are thriving. The state determined the children should not be returned to their family of origin. But, due to the law adopted in the hey-days of Anita Bryant's 1977 homophobic campaign, Gill couldn't be an adoptive parent. Foster: yes; adoptive: no. That's logical, right? NOT.

Given the lack of evidence presented to support the ban, the Miami panel knocked it down. Given the chances of this thing gaining legs in front of the Florida Supreme Court, Governor Charlie Crist announced that he is ending the ban. Helps that Crist is in a contentious U.S. Senate race... and that he is no longer a Republican. Would have been nicer if the Governor had come to this conclusion BEFORE he spent years publicly defending the statute.

This is a tremendous victory for human rights for LGBT people... but it is a much bigger victory for children's rights. There are thousands and thousands of kids who are languishing in the state foster care system waiting for someone to call "Mom" or "Dad". Because of prejudice, they were denied a permanent home. How cruel!

Opponents of gay people, the ones who claim to be looking out for the children, are likely going to find a way to put this thing back on the books in one way or another. And I doubt they will lie down and die on this legal battle either. But for this time, we can say "Hallelujah!" that the courts continue to be one of the few places where sanity exists in this country.