In 1977, Anita Bryant had a dream that gays and lesbians would never be able to adopt children in Florida. Thirty-three years later, ultra-conservative Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum put the final dagger in Bryant’s dream — in what had actually turned out to be a nightmare for the entire GLBT community.
On October 22, McCollum announced he will not appeal a September 22 state appellate court ruling that overturned Florida’s ban on adoption by gay men or lesbians.
“The constitutionality of the Florida law banning adoption by homosexuals is a divisive matter of great public interest,” McCollum said in a statement. “As such, the final determination should rest with the Florida Supreme Court, not a lower appellate court. But after reviewing the merits of independently seeking Supreme Court review, following the decision of our client the Department of Children and Families not to appeal the decision of the Third District Court of Appeal, it is clear that this is not the right case to take to the Supreme Court for its determination. No doubt someday a more suitable case will give the Supreme Court the opportunity to uphold the constitutionality of this law.”
Frank Martin Gill, had filed the case against The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) because he wanted to adopt two young boys that he and his partner had been fostering for nearly six years.
“We are relieved that this process has finally come to an end, and that we can focus on being a family,” Gill said in a statement. Both DCF and Florida Governor Charlie Crist had said that they would not appeal the ruling.
The Keen News Service reported that McCollum told the Florida Baptist Witness in August, “I don’t believe in gay adoption” — but Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas reported that, in May, when he had asked McCollum if he favored taking the boys from Gill, McCollum mentioned a gay campaign aide who had adopted children and said, “Let’s leave it at that.”
While the law has essentially been overturned by the courts, McCollum’s statement leaves open the possibility that the state or DCF would continue to challenge adoptions by gays and lesbians and eventually take the fight all the way to Florida’s Supreme Court unless the ban is written out of the state’s constitution by legislators, which at this point does not look like it’s going to happen.
Another court challenge that is on the horizon is that of lesbian Vanessa Alenier who is trying to adopt 21-month-old Ethan, a biological relative who has been with her since he was nine days old.
Alenier’s case was recently heard by Third District Court and DCF has not decided yet whether they will continue to fight Alenier’s adoption of Ethan or stop the case altogether.
“The breadth of social science and child welfare research – spanning 25 years – proves irrefutably that gays and lesbians make every bit as much of a good parent as straight parents,” said American Civil Liberties Union Spokesman Brandon Hensler. The ACLU is supporting Alenier in her case.
Currently there are about 1,000 children available for adoption in the state of Florida and another 19,000 who are in temporary foster care and could also be adopted, according to DCF.
Florida’s two candidates running for the open Governor position has different views concerning the gay adoption ruling. Republican Rick Scott said, “Children should be raised in a home with a married man and a woman. Pressed to expand on whether the state should forbid gays from having children through other methods, such as surrogate parenting or in vitro fertilization, Scott repeated his previous statement. Democrat Alex Sink said: “As a mom who cares about what is in the best interest of Florida’s children, I support the end of this ban.”