Gay Couples Seek to Become Adoptive Parents in South Florida

More than 100 LGBT couples in South Florida have pending adoption cases, one year following a state court's ruling that gay couples have the right to adopt, the Sun Sentinel reports.

In September 2010, the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Miami ruled that a 33-year-old ban that prevented gay parents from adopting was unenforceable. The Florida Department of Children and Families announced a month later that it would not appeal the ruling.

"This law, by baselessly branding gay people unfit parents, was one of the most notorious antigay laws in the country, and we are delighted that it has been ended once and for all," Leslie Cooper, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project, said last year. (Cooper argued the case before the 3rd district court.)

One year later, family law attorney Elizabeth Schwartz of Miami said about inquiries from prospective gay adoptive parents, "The phones have been ringing off the hook."

Read the Sun Sentinel report here.