A number of prominent
advocacy groups are urging an appeals court to strike
down a 31-year-old law that bars Florida's gay men and
lesbians from adopting.
A number of prominent
advocacy groups are urging an appeals court to strike
down a 31-year-old law that bars Florida's gay men and
lesbians from adopting.
The groups -- including
the American Psychological Association, the Center for Adoption
Policy, and the Southern Poverty Law Center -- filed
seven friend-of-the-court briefs in a pending case
before Florida's third district court of appeal.
The appeals court will
soon decide whether to uphold or reject a Miami-Dade
circuit court decision that granted the adoptions of two
brothers to a north Miami gay couple, effectively overturning
the state's ban on gay adoption, which came to be after the
homophobic Anita Bryant "Save Our Children" campaign
of the late 1970s. That Miami case, which was won by the
American Civil Liberties Union, was immediately
appealed by the state of Florida, though no date has yet been
set for oral arguments in the third district court of
appeal.
"The Florida law
banning lesbians and gay men from adopting cripples efforts to
find families for the approximately 3,500 foster children the
state reported were in need of homes and leaves some children
without the security of adoption and having a 'forever
family,'" said Leslie Cooper, a senior staff lawyer with the
ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, in a press
release. "It's not surprising that so many prominent
children's advocates are stepping up to let the court know just
how harmful this law is to children."
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