Loading...
Loading...
On-Air Promo Creative 115x175
|| News ||
Page 1 of 1

Florida Judge Rules Gay Adoption Ban Unconstitutional

A Florida judge has found the state's 31-year ban on gay adoptions to be unconstitutional, reports the Miami Herald. The ruling from Judge David Audlin Jr. will allow a gay Key West resident to adopt the teenage boy he has raised as a foster parent since 2001. Audlin said the adoption was in the child's "best interest" and asserted that barring gays from adopting conflicted with the state constitution since it targets a specific group for punishment. Audlin had appointed the foster father to be the boy's legal guardian in 2006. At a hearing earlier this year, the order says the boy testified that he wanted the man to be his "forever father...because I love him," the Herald reports.



A Florida judge has found the state's 31-year ban on gay adoptions to be unconstitutional, reports the Miami Herald. The ruling from Judge David Audlin Jr. will allow a gay Key West resident to adopt the teenage boy he has raised as a foster parent since 2001.

Judge Audlin said the adoption was in the child's "best interest" and asserted that barring gays from adopting conflicted with the state constitution since it targets a specific group for punishment. Audlin had appointed the foster father to be the boy's legal guardian in 2006. At a hearing earlier this year, the order says the boy testified that he wanted the man to be his "forever father...because I love him," the Herald reports.

''Contrary to every child welfare principle,'' Audlin wrote in his opinion, ''the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that...it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual.''

Florida and Mississippi are the only two states that currently forbid gays and lesbians from adopting children. (The Advocate)

Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Facebook. Page 1 of 1
Reader Comments
  • Name: Bear Carmack
    Date posted: 9/13/2008 6:20:00 PM
    Hometown: Hot Springs, AR

    Comment:

    Thank God for people like Judge David Audlin Jr.! I'm gay and so happy for all GLBT people in FL who can now adopt kids after 31 too long years! I live in AR and the Far Right nuts have successfully put an anti-GLBT adoption ban in November '08. A gay-friendly group called Arkansas Families First is suing the Arkansas Family Council (a Far Right group) to get that measure off the ballet. Keep the gay community of AR in your prayers and in your thoughts while they battle it out. I'm thinking that one way this anti-gay adoption might get tossed is IF: 1. Obama becomes president 2. He (Obama) voids the fed DOMA 3. He then sets up a fed civil union that GLBT people can do and have all the 1,100 benefits of marriage. 4. One of the 1,100 benefits in this federal civil union includes adoption of children, which will mean that the anti-gay adoption state laws of Mississippi and [maybe] Arkansas will be tossed out in a federal court of law! Hurrah!

  • Name: Roland
    Date posted: 9/11/2008 3:54:00 PM
    Hometown: Worcester Mass

    Comment:

    Judge Audlin wins the gold medal of honor for this great act on behalf of the child. We have 'Gay Republicans' who stand behind the 'Now Republican Party', because they believe in what they used to stand for. I do not believe in what they stand for now! What everyday 'Republicans' want to think that their party stands for, well in reality that 'Republican party" is long gone. Let us take back to the 'Republican Party' this, let us tell them since you do not want 'Gays' to adopt children, then let yourselves make it a law that every couple who is 'Male & Female" must take in a child to decrease the surplus population! Think about it, after all it is not 'Gays' who are creating this impact on our social culture, it's the 'Heterosexual's' running rampant with their choices of having sex without a condom, and ooh yes, having children without actually wanting or knowing how to take care of them in the first place!

  • Name: Andy
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 11:11:00 PM
    Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL

    Comment:

    Bigots never care who they hurt. Bigots are ignorant, afraid, even jealous. They only care about bullying, hurting, power over anyone different, weaker, than they are. It never mattered to Bryant, or any holy roller that countless 1000s of kids remained in group homes/orphanages, bounced from foster to foster home. Many kids fell through the cracks of overburdened FLA child welfare system, even while wonderful, loving GLBT prospective parents were ready, willing, able to adopt. Some were "at risk kids," some died as result of neglect from not being adopted. All this misery for kids across 31 yrs, because Anita's (and her allies then/since) judgments of people who Anita and friends probably weren't qualified to clean their toilets. Anita wasn't stepping up to adopt any kids, was she? Gay adoptive parents are often willing to adopt kids of other races, drug babies, birth defect babies, older kids, and we know Anita would never adopt any of those, would she?

  • Name: Donna
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 4:47:00 PM
    Hometown: Saint Louis, Michigan

    Comment:

    Way to go Judge Audlin...finally someone standing up for children who are happy and healthy and just want "forever parents".   May God Bless you! 

  • Name: Rogr Burr
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 2:01:00 PM
    Hometown: Marble Hill, MO

    Comment:

    Kudos to Judge Audlin! I'm delighted to read the boy being adopted will now be able to continue in the loving, caring home he has had since 2001. It's high time people realized that being gay is NOT a life choice; but a biological fact! Children raised in LGBT homes are no more likely to 'turn-out' gay than those raised by heterosexual couples. Moreover, given the number of 'unwanted' children the breeders have dumped on societys care, ANYONE; gay or straight, who has the ability and desire to provide a secure, loving home to a child in need of one, should be given that opportunity.

  • Name: James
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 1:48:00 PM
    Hometown: Long Island NY

    Comment:

    Judge Audlin--a voice of reason who has not let the fearmongering cloud his judgment. Now if the rest of the state would gradually see his point of view.

  • Name: Tim Smith
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 1:24:00 PM
    Hometown: Memphis, TN

    Comment:

    Bravo to Judge Audlin. Floridians, not just LGBT Floridians, have lived in the shadow of Anita Bryant for far too long. Contrary to what the zealous evangelicals will say, this decision is a victory for all of Florida's families. I can only hope to see my original home state, Mississippi, one day lift its ban.

  • Name: John
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 12:36:00 PM
    Hometown: New Orleans

    Comment:

    If not Anita Bryant then Sarah Palin. there will always be some bigot in the way of our rights. Will we ever have equality in my lifetime? the clock is ticking.

  • Name: Bob
    Date posted: 9/10/2008 11:16:00 AM
    Hometown: Bloomington

    Comment:

    Anita Bryant, eat the dust, I was a Fla. resident when she was on her war path for God down there...how many kids have lost an opportunity for a good home because of her? Did she stop to think about that?



More Online Only
  • Music Thicke and Juicy

    Sexy soul singer Robin Thicke opens up about his Precious wife, homophobia in the music industry, and the gay men who’ve shaped his life and love since childhood. 

  • Internet Herman on Why He Wants to Stop H8

    Fitness trainer, Real World alum, and marriage equality advocate Scott Herman took some time between crunches to tell The Advocate that his concern for gay rights isn't manufactured, and he doesn't mind men checking him out.

  • News Celebration of Courage Not So Courageous

    Advocate contributor Michael Lucas says the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission needs to be doing more to stop violence against gays and lesbians in countries "oppressed by Islam."

  • Commentary The Truth Behind Her Name Was Steven

    Advocate contributor Eden Lane says CNN's Her Name Was Steven will help raise the visibility of trans people on TV, but the most compelling part of Susan Stanton's journey was left to a title card at the end of the film.

  • Television Laverne, Surely

    I Want to Work for Diddy alum Laverne Cox leads a trio of transgender ladies in VH1’s Transform Me, a new makeover show that flatters her hooker-heavy résumé.

  • Music Cherie’s Jubilee

    With The Runaways, the new film about her life with Joan Jett, pioneering rock star Cherie Currie is enjoying a renaissance ... with a little help from Dakota Fanning.

  • Activism Sex-Ed Student Turns Teen Activist

    When sex education classes at Danny Sparks's high school failed to address the issues important to him, he took matters into his own hands ... and became an activist in the process.

  • Photography Slideshow Flag Artist Spotlight: Ryan Colford

    From his "candy shoppe" line — sweet treats made oh-so sexy — to his black and white studies of the male form, photographer Ryan Colford exposes the beauty of the male body.

  • Commentary What Massa Could Learn From Ashburn

    COMMENTARY: Matthew S. Bajko says Republican California state senator Roy Ashburn deserves praise for coming out of the closet despite his antigay voting record. Now, if only former congressman Eric Massa would follow his lead.

  • Music The Truth About Tracy and Kim

    Don’t be tardy for this party! DJ Tracy Young comes clean — mostly — about her rumored lesbian relationship with Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak.

  • News Video Content Flag Kids Say the Darndest Things

    Micah Schraft and his boyfriend, John, were filming Micah's family at Thanksgiving when the 5-year-old son of a family friend wanted to know if the two were husbands. The result is a video you have to see. 

  • Commentary The Importance of Being Counted

    With benefits from boosting hate-crimes and marriage equality laws to simply letting legislators know gay Americans indeed exist, the 2010 Census is a chance to stand up and be counted.

1037 COVER X135 | ADVOCATE.COM