Monday, November 07, 2005
Floridians Gear Up To Fight Adoption Ban
(Link) A bill to allow gays and lesbians to adopt children on a case by case basis has been introduced to the state's House and Senate. Orlando's Coalition for Fair Adoption plans to push for a complete repeal of the ban. Sure it would tick off the 40% who are happy with the ban, but it would give parents to 1,000 children.
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JIC Post:
By Tania Deluzuriaga
Orlando Sentinel
Opponents of Florida's ban on gay adoptions met Saturday at an Orlando church to discuss strategy for changing a law they consider unjust to children and to many adults who want to be their parents.
About a dozen members of the Orlando Coalition for Fair Adoption outlined plans to meet with state lawmakers and visit Tallahassee in support of legislation that would let judges allow homosexuals to adopt children on a case-by-case basis.
The bill has been introduced in the Florida House and Senate.
"We realize this is a step to full equality," said Joseph Saunders, a field organizer for Equality Florida, the state's largest gay-and-lesbian advocacy group.
"But I would stress that our goal is a full repeal of the ban."
Lawmakers enacted the gay-adoption ban in 1977, at the height of an anti-gay campaign led by singer Anita Bryant after Miami-Dade County voted to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination.
Opponents say the state law prevents hundreds of needy children from being adopted by suitable families.
"Because of this law I've had to send some parents overseas to adopt rather than adopt children here in Florida who need homes," said Orlando attorney Michael Morris, who attended Saturday's meeting at Hope United Church.
Earlier this year, Florida's Department of Children & Families said there were about 1,000 children in need of adoptive homes.
Nearly a tenth, or 130 of them, were in District 7, which includes Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.
In addition to gays who wish to adopt, the law affects gay couples who become parents outside the foster-care system, with the help of surrogates or egg and sperm donors. Under such arrangements, one parent usually has no biological tie to the child they are raising and under the law no parental rights.
Although Florida is the only state that specifically bans gays from adopting children, the law does not prohibit gays from becoming foster parents or permanent guardians.
The current bill sponsored by Rep. Sherry MacInvale, D-Orlando, and Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, could give hope to gays already found suitable for foster parenting.
A similar measure failed in the Legislature last year.
Efforts to challenge the law in court also have been unsuccessful. A federal appeals court upheld the ban last year, agreeing with state officials that Florida has a right to determine policy for what type of family abused and neglected children in foster care may join.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the case in January.
A 2004 Harris poll found that more than 40 percent of Americans disapprove of adoption by same-sex couples.
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