I wish the gay community in Florida would GET it.
I say tomato, they say tomaaato...
Apparently they are calling a ban on gay Adoption a "form of punishment" as stated in the following article.
Uh, hello, DUH....
What the hell do they think the entire Closed Adoption System was BASED on to begin with?
It amazes me, with everyone out there now, screaming out for their rights, crying discrimination and demanding the end of Oppression, how certain groups of people if granted the freedoms they want will inadvertently OPPRESS other groups of people. Like us. Adoptees.
Sorry, but gays have no right to continue the cycle of Closed Record Adoptions and the corruption involved in Open Adoption because they want to be accepted like heterosexual couples.
Nor do they have the right to expand the slavery like buying and selling of human beings that sometimes IS Adoption. They need to realize that babies were taken from their Real Mothers AS a form of punishment in the BSE era and EVEN now, because the woman has had a child out of wedlock or isn't making a hundred grand a year.
Gay activists also need to stop fighting the anti-beastality laws, as some gay activists do, because beastality is animal abuse and no one deserves the freedom to oppress an animal OR a child....the bottom line is NO ONE will ever be free, if some people's new founded freedoms continue to make prisoners of any living being...and as homosexuals and lesbians demand the right to Adopt they are only being hypocrites, and need to remember the wise words of MLK Jr.....
and until then, I throw rotten tomatoes at their show......(but don't worry, I don't discriminate, I have plenty reserved for Pro-Adoption Christians, The NCFA and the ACLU too...:)
"Judge rules Fla. adoption ban unconstitutional"
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
"Florida's ban on gays becoming adoptive or foster parents is unconstitutional, rules a Monroe County judge in letting a Key West adoption go forward, the Miami Herald reported.
Declaring the adoption to be in the boy's "best interest," Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. ruled the Florida ban contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment, the Herald said.
Mississippi and Florida are the only states that forbid gays to adopt children. Florida's ban has been in place for 31 years.
"Contrary to every child welfare principle, the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that . . . it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual," Audlin wrote.
Florida does allow gays to become foster, or temporary, parents. The petitioner, a 52-year-old Key West man, had fostered dozens of children before attempting to adopt his special-needs foster son, now 13, who has been in his care since 2001. Both are unidentified in court documents for privacy reasons.
The state Department of Children and Families did not contest the case or attempt to uphold the ban, the Herald noted; nor did Florida's attorney general.
Thus it's not clear if anyone will appeal Audlin's ruling; until they do, legal experts told the Herald, it will hold little sway against the state and federal appellate rulings that have upheld the adoption ban, most recently in 2005.
"On the one hand, this is one trial judge in Key West," Stetson University law professor Michael Allen told the Herald. On the other, he said, "cracks begin to develop in legal doctrine. Even if it has no effect as precedent and it is not repeated someplace else, it's a crack.
"If you get enough cracks, things break." (Barbara Wilcox)
Florida is set to vote for a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality this November. The initiative was sponsored entirely by the Republican National Party. It is unclear how a change in the constitution would hinder same-sex adoption. Experts agree it won't be good for gays and lesbians".
AND:
Judge's Ruling Reopens Debate On Gay Adoption Ban
By SHERRI ACKERMAN
The Tampa Tribune
September 11, 2008
TAMPA - A South Florida judge's ruling that Florida's ban on gay adoption is unconstitutional could help convince legislators it's time to change an antiquated law, gay advocates say.
Monroe County Circuit Court Judge David J. Audlin ruled Wednesday that the state's 31-year-old ban is unconstitutional because it singles out a group for punishment.
The Key West case involves a 13-year-old boy with learning disabilities and special needs whose 52-year-old foster dad wanted to adopt him. A social worker highly recommended the dad and his partner for the adoption, but state law forbids that.
"Contrary to every child welfare principle, the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that ... it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual," Audlin wrote in his ruling.
Circuit judges in Florida have twice before found the statute unconstitutional, both in 1991, though the challenges stalled at the appellate level. A similar case is expected to be heard in Miami next month.
"These cases are different from prior court cases because the science wasn't in the record," said Karen Doering, a civil rights lawyer in St. Petersburg.
Prominent studies are finding there is no harm to children who are raised by gay and lesbian parents, she said. Children do better with two parents, but they don't necessarily have to be a mom and a dad, she said.
"Every reputable child welfare organization in the country opposes these bans," Doering added.
Nick Cox, regional director of the Florida Department of Children & Families, said his agency only follows what the law commands.
"We obviously can't do anything about it," he said of the ban. "We keep trying to place children in good safe homes."
Florida has 3,307 children available for adoption; about 75 percent have identified homes, DCF spokeswoman Sarrah Troncoso said. That leaves about 1,000 children in need of adoptive families, she said.
In Hillsborough County, 654 children "need safe, loving, nurturing families to grow up in," said Jeff Rainey, chief executive officer of Hillsborough Kids Inc., which oversees local adoptions for the state.
Florida's law is the only one in the nation explicitly excluding gay men and women from adopting. Utah allows only married couples to adopt and the state doesn't recognize gay marriages. Mississippi bans adoptions by couples of the same gender, but not by gay individuals.
Despite the ban, Florida welcomes gays to become foster parents and at least one local couple was allowed to go a step further.
Curtis Watson and his partner of Seminole won long-term custody of two foster girls in 2004. Pinellas County Circuit Judge Irene Sullivan thanked the couple and told the state it owed them a debt of gratitude for the way they cared for the girls, who had been severely abused.
"It was one step shy" of what the Monroe County judge did, said Watson's attorney, Deborah Eldridge of St. Petersburg.
"I'm very excited," she said of Wednesday's ruling. "Obviously it's going to be appealed ... but it's really a matter of time" before the ban on gay adoptions is overturned.
Today, Watson's daughters are 9 and 10 years old and thriving, said the mental health provider who works with foster children. "They're growing up, going to school, making friends," he said. "It's been a very good life."
He looked at the recent ruling as yet another chance at breaking the barrier.
"Of course, any step we can take lifting the ban is the step in the right direction," he said. Although he would love to adopt the girls, "we're a family, regardless."
Not everyone revels in the ruling. "It's unfortunate you get a rogue judge who wants to legislate from the bench," said David Caton of the Florida Family Association, a Tampa-based group that strives to improve America's moral environment.
Florida is not the only state that considers same sex couples inappropriate, he said. Other states may not have statutes on the subject, but they have regulations that make it difficult or impossible for gays to adopt children.
Gays are "pushing for acceptance of their lifestyle and using the court for that," Caton said. "It's unfortunate that children are caught up in the middle."
"The foster care system is totally obsolete. Kids are being killed, abused and even experimented on.At age 18, they are aged out of the system, they give them $5 and a bag of lunch and say go live your life. Most of these kids end up in trouble, jail, or a mental institution. All the kids in the group homes, juvenile detention centers and over half of the people in prison overall come from the foster care system."
"To be honest with you, I hold what I call a flawed culture in the Department of Child Safety responsible.They struck me as people with no morals, no ethics and they are only there for careers and not for a concern about the people who they are taxpayer-funded to serve.I find it evil and I think the taxpayer needs to know.It would seem the care of children has been lost in bureaucratic games."
