The Miami Herald is reporting that Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman has ruled in the case of Frank Martin Gill, a gay foster parent challenging Florida’s decades-old ban on gays and lesbians adopting children. Judge Lederman found that “[i]t is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person’s ability to parent.”

We could have told her that!

This is a huge step forward in the long struggle to repeal the adoption ban at the state level. Early reports indicate that the Department of Children and Families will appeal the decision to the State Supreme Court. If the SSC upholds Judge Lederman’s ruling, children with LGBT parents in Florida will no longer have to worry about whether their families are forever families or not.

Thanks to our friends at the ACLU LGBT Project for their ongoing work in this case. 

Read the Miami Herald article here.

Read Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler’s statement to the press here: FEC Statement on ACLU/Gill FL Adoption Case

Full text of the statement can be found after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November, 25 2008

Contact:
Cathy Renna, Renna Communications, 917-757-6123, cathy@rennacommunications.com
Simon Aronoff, Renna Communications, 202-510-6705, simon@rennacommunications.com

Family Equality Council Applauds Florida Ruling on Gay Man Adopting
Ruling Coincides with Legal and Social Progress Toward Recognizing Gay Parents

Statement from Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director

Boston, MA – On Tuesday, November 25, 2008 Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman issued her ruling in the case of Frank Martin Gill, a 54-year-old North Miami man who is challenging Florida’s decades-old law banning all gay and lesbian people from adopting children. Judge Lederman decided that Gill’s sexual orientation should not preclude him from being able to adopt his two foster children, whom he has parented for more than four years. The State of Florida will now decide whether to appeal Judge Lederman’s ruling to the State Supreme Court. Action on this case at the State Supreme Court level could overturn Florida’s decade’s old ban on gays and lesbians adopting children. Florida is currently the only state that expressly bans all gays and lesbians from adopting. The state does allow gays and lesbians to foster parent.

Statement of Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council:

“Judge Lederman’s ruling is a long-overdue recognition of the equal ability of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to raise happy, healthy families. LGBT parents are raising millions of children nationwide. Our families are members of communities in every state. We contribute at work and at school. We want only to be given the same opportunities and legal protections other families have so that we may best take care of ourselves. Florida’s ban on all gays and lesbians adopting has long stood in the face of more than twenty-five years of social science research that shows no difference in the abilities of LGBT and straight parents. Countless child welfare organizations attest to the need to support LGBT parents and their families. The best interests of children should be decided by parents, families, professionals and judges, not opportunistic politicians and interest groups who have long run campaigns demonizing our families. We at the Family Equality Council fully trust that the Florida State Supreme Court, should it hear this case on appeal, will see that the state has no compelling reason to overturn today’s ruling, which evaluated the relationship between Frank Martin Gill and his two sons and, correctly, said, ‘Yes, this is a family.’”

More Information on LGBT Parents and Foster/Adoption Policies
All information cited in “LGBT Parenting Policy in the United States,” a Family Equality Council publication available at www.familyequality.org/resources/publications.html 

•    Gay and lesbian parents are raising 4% of all adopted children in the United States, approximately 65,500 children. Three percent are being raised by single lesbians and gay men and 1% by same-sex couples.

•    Gay parents are raising adopted children all over the United States, but are most highly concentrated in New England, Mid-Atlantic, and West coast states and least concentrated in the Midwest and the South. Massachusetts, California, New Mexico, and Alaska have the highest percentages of lesbian and gay adoptive parents.

•    Census 2000 estimates indicate that 6% of children in non-kin care, with caretakers other than extended family members, are being raised by gay, lesbian, and bisexual foster parents, a total of 14,134 of the nearly 500,000 children living in foster care on any given day. Gay and lesbian foster parents are more likely to raise children with disabilities—32% of all foster children with disabilities reside with gay and lesbian parents.

•    Florida is the only state that has a law specifically disallowing gay individuals from adopting. In Nebraska, although no statutory law exists, a 1995 directive of the then director of the Department of Social Service prohibits adoption by gay individuals as well as individuals who are cohabitating in an unmarried relationship. In addition, North Dakota law permits child-placing agencies to discriminate against prospective adoptive parents based on religious or moral objection, while Utah law gives preference to married couples over single adults in adoption placement decisions. Both of these laws may have the effect of restricting adoption by gay individuals.

•    Conversely, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York have policies prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in the adoption process. In addition, because of their statutes or appellate court decisions permitting second-parent adoption, an individual’s sexual orientation is not a basis for exclusion in Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

•    Arkansas is the most recent state to pass restrictions on gay and lesbian foster parenting and adoption. On November 4, 2008, Arkansas voters passed Act 1, a citizen-initiated ballot measure statutorily banning all unmarried, cohabitating couples from fostering or adopting children. This act includes all same-sex couples in Arkansas because regardless of their intentions they cannot legally marry in the state.

About the Family Equality Council
Family Equality Council works to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families by building community, changing hearts and minds, and advancing social justice for all families. We recognize and believe that the laws, provisions and ordinances that hurt LGBT-headed families also hurt so many others—single parents, blended families, families of color, and more. To that end, Family Equality Council is standing strong to defeat anti-family legislation and promote pro-family legislation. For more information, please visit www.familyequality.org.

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