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Couple Takes on Fla. Adoption Law


VANESSA ALENIER MELANIE LEON X390 (MIAMI HERALD/BARBARA FERNANDEZ) | ADVOCATE.COM

Vanessa Alenier and Melanie Leon faced the Florida third district court of appeal Wednesday in an attempt to keep their adopted son, a relative of Alenier's.

The boy's biological mother was deemed unfit to raise him, and Alenier agreed to foster him in January 2009, when he was a newborn, according to The Miami Herald. Her subsequent request to adopt him was approved by Miami-Dad circuit judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia, going against the 1977 law that allows gay and lesbian Floridians to foster children but not adopt them. However, the state Department of Children and Families appealed the decision.

Alenier's attorney said the couple should be allowed to adopt the boy, as they are the only parents he knows.

"Wholesome environments is not a synonym for straight," attorney Alan Mishael said.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Tod
    Date posted: 9/9/2010 11:35:30 PM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    What seems so different and wrong here (among so many things) is that the child is a relative of Ms Alenier. It seems so surprising and against the interests of the child that the court would deny the adoption to possibly place the child in a non-family setting when a family member, even if it not an immediate family member, is willing and able.

  • Name: Jim
    Date posted: 9/9/2010 6:02:31 PM
    Hometown: Northampton, MA

    Comment:

    It's sad that the women's attorney has to devalue the "wholesome" environment they are already providing, but in Florida lingo that word is applied excusively to straight and preferably Christian married (therefore opposite-sex) couples. No matter that most of the child neglect and abuse occurs with such "wholesome" families.



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