Florida Set To Repeal 38-year-old Ban On Gay Adoption

Washington Times ^ | April 8, 2015 | Gary Fineout

[Iron Munro]

Florida’s nearly 40-year-old ban on gay adoption - which hasn’t been enforced for the past five years - is about to be tossed out by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

But it’s not going without a fierce debate, including whether the state should adopt a separate law that would let private agencies use religious or moral grounds to turn away gay couples seeking to adopt children.

Some Republicans say this “conscience” law is needed to ensure that faith-based organizations handling adoptions will keep offering their services, but other legislators have compared the measure to Indiana’s religious objections law and said it would encourage discrimination against gay couples.

Both the House and Senate spent hours on Wednesday debating the state’s existing ban - and what will happen if it is permanently removed from law.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, defended the decision to jettison the gay adoption ban and called it a relic of another time that is now meaningless since an appeals court declared the law unconstitutional in 2010.

“We don’t need to turn the social clock in this state back to 1977,” said Gaetz, who is sponsoring the adoption bill.

Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, tried unsuccessfully to persuade other senators to keep the ban on the books. Stargel argued that getting rid of the ban could lead faith-based organizations to leave the state.

“I’m not going to let something leave this chamber and go to the governor that I think is the wrong policy for the state of Florida,” said Stargel.

The Florida Senate on Wednesday gave tentative approval to the bill (HB 7013) that eliminates the ban.

But after an outcry from conservative groups over the demise of the ban, House Republicans have agreed to push forward a separate bill that would “shield” religious organizations

[GOPsterinMA]

Really? I figured poof or a capon, never a ladies man.

[Impy]

He looks more like a lesbian than a fag.

[GOPsterinMA]

Good point.

[MSF BU]

Nowadays, you here more about Senators with homosexual children than you hear about Senators with sons in the military. I wonder why that is?

[9thLife]

Over the cliff, one law at a time.

[lavaroise]

The gay agenda is the agenda of a polygamist cult without rpthe reproduction. instead of keeping the children prisoners within, they kidnap them and use their collective of polygamy to bully individual families.

[Guenevere]

Oh I know!!!!!

His offIce did return my call, and even if she sounded unsure of his response.......

....she did tell me many are calling in asking....pleading with him not to approve this!

[Guenevere]

You are fortunate to have Kelli Stargel as your rep!

I’m stuck with Thad Altman

[exDemMom]

It's all based on the idea that adoption serves the wants of adults

Isn't the whole "abortion rights" narrative about the idea that children are property, not human beings? Why would people who have that view of children care about kids' well-being after adoption?

[SkyPilot]

Florida bet get ready for judgment and disaster.

In December of 2012, the drought in California began, almost to the day the California's "gay marriage" law was announced to be heard by the Supreme Court.

The "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" baffled every meteorologist and analyst, who could not believe this weather pattern was doing what it was doing.

If I were living in Florida, and they repeal the law that has protected these children from these lust fueled homosexual perverts, then watch out. Christ doesn't much care for those who harm His little ones.

"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."

Matthew 18:6

Get ready Florida..............

[Gunslingr3]

My mistake, it was not taken to the State Supreme Court:

“Gill is a landmark Florida court case that in 2010 ended Florida’s 33-year ban on adoptions by homosexuals. In 2007, Frank Martin Gill, an openly gay man, had petitioned the circuit court to adopt two boys that he and his partner had been raising as foster children since 2004. Gill was prohibited from adopting by a 1977 Florida law prohibiting adoption by gay men and lesbians in that state. After a four-day trial challenging the law, on November 25, 2008, Judge Cindy S. Lederman declared the ban violated the equal protection rights of the children and their prospective parents under the Florida Constitution, and granted Gill’s adoption request.

The state of Florida appealed the trial court decision. Oral arguments were heard by a three judge panel of the Florida Third District Court of Appeal on August 26, 2009.The district court upheld the trial court’s ruling in favor of the plaintiffs on September 22, 2010, and the state declined to pursue any further appeals, thus effectively nullifying the anti-gay adoption statute, which the state no longer enforces.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

Very true. Both gay-adoption and abortion are premised on the idea (openly spoken or not) that children are property: when they are desired by some adult, to be acquired; when they are not desired, to be disposed of.

Neither is based on responding to the actual needs and rights of the child: the right to simply go on living, and to be raised and loved by their father and mother. In the acknowledged tragic situation where the child's father and mother are unable to care for him (e.g. the death or dereliction of the parents), we still have a duty to get that child into a family with a man and a woman in a stable marriage who will fill the childn's needs for a father and mother.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Flake is just...a Flake.”

Remove we MUST!

Worse than McCain

100% pure CoC whore.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

I’ve never heard of a gay male couple adopting little girls have you?

[MNDude]

Only on the TV shows that portrays them as sweet parents.

[Disambiguator]

The girls of my generation are as shocked by that as my mom’s were when Johnny Mathis came out of the closet.

My mom actually went to High School WITH Johnny Mathis. She said the girls all loved it when he sang at school assemblies.

[gleeaikin]

I once knew a gay man whose father began to rape him at age 13 after his wife and the boy’s mother had died. There is a difference between child molesters and homosexuals. Not all child molesters are gay, and not too many homosexuals are child molesters. I had the misfortune to meet a “straight” child molester when I was 7. This Florida case involved two gay men who had been fostering children for a number of years and wanted to adopt them. I have known people who survived straight foster care and might have preferred well supervised gay foster care and adoption. In one case of foster care in Virginia the child was required to care for a calf which he grew fond of, and then when it was grown was required to kill it.

In a separate but related story, the state of Florida is about to end a 150 year old law that makes it illegal for unrelated members of the opposite sex to live together. This will be good news for some elderly people currently living in sin, since a lot cannot afford to get married and then have to pay more taxes on their Social Security benefits.

[Ann Archy]

NO!!!! Horrible idea.

[conservaKate]

I would postulate that nearly half the people who have children should not have been parents. Stupid people raising stupid children...sad to witness.

And no...not suggesting people should have abortions or be steralized.

[guitarist]

I’m afraid many of the votes for this bill are being cast by people who know it’s wrong to put a kid in the home of a homosexual couple, but they are crumbling under the political pressure. Which is, of course, a completely unnecessary thing to do. What could be more important than the lives and the futures of little children??