Gay Men Lose Challenge to Florida Gay Adoption Ban

[kskiska]

Four gay men lost a federal challenge Wednesday to the only blanket state law banning homosexuals from adopting children, a statute passed at the height of Anita Bryant's anti-homosexual campaign.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the men, who are foster parents seeking to adopt children in their care despite the 1977 law.

"Obviously we're crushed," said Paul Cates with the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

Gov Jeb Bush said he was "pleased" by the ruling. It validates Florida's contention "that it is in the best interest of adoptive children, many of whom come from troubled and unstable backgrounds, to be placed in a home anchored both by a father and a mother," he said in a statement.

Florida is the only state in the nation with a complete ban on adoption by gays, whether married or single. The law linked to the movement led by Bryant has withstood several challenges in state court.

more…
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/28/national1715EST0754.DTL

[WildClarySage]

1. Wait, does this mean that

only couples may adopt in Florida? I thought single folk (heterosexual single folk, that is) could adopt. Hmm, sounds more like JebSpeak to me.

[TexasProgressive]

2. I hate Jeb as much as Dubya

What stupid fucks.

The Bushes need and love the gay community. They get so much political mileage out of us.

What an indecent thing for him to suggest that he is "pleased" with a ruling that upholds "Florida's contention" that troubled adoptive kids from unstable backgrounds do best with both a mother and a father. More stupid political blather for the rednecks and the Bible thumpers.

Hell, look at Jeb's own children. Look at Dubya's children.

So Florida is the only state in the nation with a complete ban on adoption by gays. Damn. It's seldom that another state makes Texas seem tolerant or progressive.

I'm so flipping tired of all of this.

[theHandpuppet]

3. I want to hear...

Andrew Sullivan and those Log Cabin Republithugs defend their love for the GOP. What idiots! Will they continue to pour their money into Republican coffers for the upcoming elections, thinking that money alone can get them an invitation to the club, so to speak? Well line up, you self-hating fools, because if it suits the GOP and their fundie, RW constituency you'll be the first in line to the chopping block! Literally. The size of your bank accounts won't mean squat. Take a lesson from Nazi Germany.

There's a war against gays going on this country, and anyone who supports the GOP is my enemy. That includes gays who support the GOP platform. (Just wait til the GOP convention when the rhetoric against gays will reach a fever pitch!)

Gays today, but who will be the target tomorrow?

In Germany they first came for the Communists
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up

-- Reverend Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the German Confessing Church who spent seven years in a concentration camp.

[hlthe2b]

4. This is tragic. I've followed this case for some time...

I can't get the SF article to load. Do they have any options?

[Dirty Hippie]

5. Very sad

I believe this case involved two men who fostered children with who were HIV positive. One child was cured, as sometimes happens with kids and the state wanted to put him up for adoption. These men are the only family this child has ever known and Florida wants to take him because he is now adoptable.