Qnews update: Miami judge rules Florida's gay adoption ban unconstitutional; Foster dads can adopt their kids 25-Nov-08

The case was brought by Frank Martin Gill and his partner who have been foster parents to 4-year old and 8-year old half brothers since 2004.

In 2004, the state encouraged the Gill and his partner to provide a foster home for two boys. Since then, social workers and the court-appointed lawyer for the children credit Gill and his partner for taking boys from a background of drugs and abuse and raising thriving, happy, well-adjusted children.

The state terminated the parental rights of the boys' birth mother which makes Gill and his partner eligible for permanent adoption.

Miami court set to rule on Florida anti-gay adoption ban [contd.]

"I'm just trying to do what I believe is the best thing and in the best interest of my kids," Gill said when the closed hearing started early this month. "I'm trying to give them a permanent home."

But the attempt by the couple to maintain their family runs up against Florida Statute 63.042, which states: "No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual."

They can be state-appointed foster parents. They can be named permanent guardians. But adoption is not allowed.

The apparent contradiction is obvious to Robert Lamarche, a gay man who lives in Boca Raton with his partner Donnie Giustiniani. Earlier this year, they became the legal permanent guardians of 13-year-old Kasey.

That means a judge approved Lamarche to raise Kasey with no state oversight. But, because of state law, he can't adopt him.

"It's crazy," said Lamarche. "I am holding a paper from the court that gives me and my partner guardianship, that tells me we are qualified to raise a child, but can't adopt a child. That's ridiculous. But it's the law."

In Lamarche's case and others, judges have found that the adoption ban can be harmful to the children involved in each case. A trial judge in Key West called the ban "contrary to every child welfare principle" when he ruled last month in a similar case that a gay man there could adopt the child he had raised as a foster parent.

"There's no clear reason why [Gill can't adopt] except he's gay," said Naomi Parker, a Wilton Manors diversity consultant and a lesbian who went out of state to adopt her now-16-year-old daughter. "It's a human rights issue, not a gay rights issue."

Most other states allow adoption by one one gay or lesbian parent, but joint adoption by a couple or second-parent adoption is either not allowed or faces legal hurdles. Fort Lauderdale's Sun Sentinel lists the state laws that apply to adoptions by LGBT parents.

The Miami court challenge is only the latest case involving gay foster parents trying to provide permanent homes for children, but Gill has a few things going for him in this case. The judge, Cindy Lederman, has a history of passionate child advocacy that includes standing up to state mandates she feels are wrong, Local10 News reports.

"The fact that judges all over the state are looking a the scientific evidence and finding that gay parents serve just as well as straight parents for kids that really need it is heartening to us," said Robert Rosenwald Jr., a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union representing Gill and his partner.

"I'll just say I don't think the other 49 states can really be wrong, can they?" Gill said.

Stratton Pollitzer, of Equality Florida, an LGBT advocacy group, said there is no scientific evidence that children raised in gay homes become homosexual. "In fact, child welfare evidence shows that gay parents are as capable of being good parents as anyone else."

Source: Miami court decision may affect a law barring gays from adopting | South Florida Sun-Sentinel 
Foster Dad Fights Fla. Ban On Gay Adoption | Local10 News