Florida Gay Adoption Approved for Third Time
Gay adoption has been illegal in Florida since 1977, but another judge has nevertheless allowed it. This makes three approved gay adoptions within the last year.
What's going on?
Circuit-judges hearing adoption cases have said that the gay adoption ban is unconstitutional, and therefore grant the adoptions despite the law against them. You might remember from discussion around the Proposition 8 trial about what makes a law unconstitutional. It's not whether it's discriminatory, but rather, whether the state has a good enough reason for discriminating.
That's why the judge said in her ruling that the law is unconstitutional because the state government's reason for it--that gay adoption is bad for children and society--isn't good enough:
There is no rational connection between sexual orientation and what is or is not in the best interest of a child. The child is happy and thriving with [his lesbian mother]. The only way to give this child permanency . . . is to allow him to be adopted.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals for the Third District in Florida will soon rule on the Gill adoption case, the first of three times when a judge in Florida granted a gay adoption.
