On March 15th, The Human Rights Campaign strongly urged Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush to support lifting the state's ban on gay adoption. The ban flies in
the face of science, hurts children languishing in foster care and lacks
moral leadership, according to HRC.
"We call on Governor Bush to take the moral high ground and support
ending this discriminatory law that tears families apart and leaves more
than 3,000 of Florida's children unnecessarily languishing in foster care,"
said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. "Bush should immediately use
his authority to speak out against the ban and direct state caseworkers to
process applications irrespective of sexual orientation."
"Florida's anti-gay adoption ban is a national disgrace, a daily
insult, and a harm to the thousands of children whose prospects for adoption
are threatened because bigotry eliminates qualified parents," added Nadine
Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, a statewide group
representing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Floridians.
Florida has the most comprehensive law of the three states that ban gay or
lesbian individuals and/or couples from adopting. The other states that have
prohibitions are Mississippi and Utah. What makes Florida's law the most
draconian is its blanket prohibition on gay individuals from adopting.
Mississippi prohibits adoption by same-sex couples, while Utah prohibits
single people – gay or heterosexual – living with a partner from adopting.
Efforts to overturn the Florida ban gained momentum this week with talk show
host Rosie O'Donnell coming out as a lesbian and joining efforts to overturn
the law. O'Donnell, who owns a home in Florida, has three adoptive children.
When asked about the law, Bush gingerly danced around the issue.
"We are complying with the law," said his spokeswoman, Katie Baur. "That is
what we have to say."
In August, a federal judge in Miami upheld Florida's 24-year-old law
prohibiting same-sex adoption. The case, filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union, was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the
11th Circuit, in Atlanta. Following the ruling, a spokesperson for Gov. Jeb
Bush said that he supports the ruling.
In February, the Child Welfare League of America told the appeals
court that the ban hurts children who are waiting to be placed in adoptive
homes. And last week, nearly a dozen former state legislators who voted for
in favor of the ban in 1977 apologized for supporting it and publicly called
for the ban to be repealed.
There are currently more than 500,000 children in the foster care
system in the United States being deprived of loving homes. The Child
Welfare League of America, the American Psychological Association and the
North American Council on Adoptable Children all have issued policy
statements saying that sexual orientation is not a determinant of good
parenting. The two child welfare organizations also have said that adoption
agencies should simply disregard sexual orientation when evaluating an
adoptive parent.
In February, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy
statement supporting legal and legislative efforts to provide second-parent
or co-parent adoptions to same-sex couples. The policy statement was
published in Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed academic journal. It urged AAP
members to "support the right of every child and family to the financial,
psychological and legal security that results from having legally recognized
parents who are committed to each other and the welfare of their children."
"The experts agree that the only way to determine what is in the
best interest of a child is to make these important adoption decisions on a
case-by-case basis," said Lisa Bennett, HRC's deputy director for FamilyNet,
a web channel that offers information on lesbian and gay families
(www.hrc.org/familynet). "Numerous studies make it abundantly clear that gay
and lesbian families are just as capable of raising healthy, happy children
as any other family."
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