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September 11, 2008

Florida Judge Rules Gay Adoption Ban Unconstitutional

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.

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)

Reader Comments

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  • Name: Bear Carmack
    Date posted: 2008-09-13 6:45 PM
    Hometown: Hot Springs, AR

    Comment:

    Tim, You may get your wish of GLBT people being able to adopt in Mississippi! See my post of 2008-09-13 6:20 PM above.


  • Name: Bear Carmack
    Date posted: 2008-09-13 6:20 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: 2008-09-11 3:54 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: 2008-09-10 11:11 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: 2008-09-10 4:47 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: 2008-09-10 2:01 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: 2008-09-10 1:48 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: 2008-09-10 1:24 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: 2008-09-10 12:36 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: 2008-09-10 11:16 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?


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