On the wake of heavy criticism over the George Rekers scandal, one would think that ((Florida Attorney General and candidate for Governor Bill)) McCollum might wish to dodge the subject of gay parenting during his media campaign as he pushes to be the Republican candidate for Governor.
But no, he remains as fiercely anti-gay as ever, telling the Florida Baptist Witness that he not only wants to keep Florida's gay adoption ban, he also wants a ban on gay couples fostering, an opinion he's based on an appeal to consistency and his personal "religious faith".
Care2
Or as another Florida paper put it:
Just when you thought electioneering tactics couldn't get any lower... McCollum has stooped to a new low, pitting the need of abused and neglected foster children for loving homes against poll numbers.
Florida has the backward distinction of being the only state that bans adoptions based on sexuality, but it has long allowed gays to be foster parents.
Legal status of adoption by same-sex couples:
- purple: legal
- pink: step-child adoption
- grey: unclear
- red: illegal
(the other states marked in red only allow married couples to adopt; the restriction is not specific to same-sex couples even if it that might be its purpose)
McCollum would like to see legal foster parentage by same-sex individuals end, depriving the state of large numbers of potential and current foster parents.
One might well cite Joseph Welch from 56 years ago:
"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Apparently not. And yet this person could be the next Governor of the State of Florida, the 3rd largest state in the Union.
Florida itself, despite a court ruling declaring the policy unconstitutional (In Re: Gill), continues to demand racial ethnic sexual-orientation purity:
Florida state adoption application forms continue to require prospective adoptive parents to assert that they are neither homosexual nor bisexual.
Wikipedia: LGBT adoption
Put another way:
Are you or have you ever been a card-carrying homosexual?
According to the New York Times, the statute has its orgins in Anita's Bryant's campaign against LGBT equality:
The Legislature voted to prohibit adoptions by gay men and lesbians in 1977, in the midst of a campaign led by the entertainer Anita Bryant to repeal a gay rights ordinance adopted by Dade County.
The law was toppled two years ago, but the decision was stayed (hmmm, that sounds eerily familiar):
... the statute forbidding adoptions by gays was struck down by Judge Cindy Lederman in November 2008. In her opinion, Lederman said the law violated equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents; adding that there was no rational basis to prohibit gay parents from adopting, particularly since the state allowed them to act as foster parents. The state is appealing Judge Lederman's decision. The case ... is pending before the Third District Court of Appeals, which heard oral argument on August 26, 2009.
To anyone who has been following recent LGBT court cases, including the DOMA ruling from Massachusetts and the Proposition 8 ruling by Judge Walker, the assertion of no rational basis should not be a strange one. How many more court cases will it take which conclude that there is no rational basis for discrimination to make the United States uphold the 14th amendment? (That's a rhetorical question...)
As far as I can make out from their website, Florida's Third District Court of Appeals is currently releasing decisions each Wednesday. It's been almost a year since the case was heard, so a decision is expected in the near future, possibly as soon as the 18th, although they have scheduled the release of opinions through October, and there does not seem to be any limitation on how long they have to issue the decision.
Once the Appellate Court issues its ruling, Florida (or the Plaintiffs, if the decision inexplicably goes against them) are destined to appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court, and it will be another year or more until, hopefully, children in need of care will be able to be adopted by loving parents regardless of sexual orientation.
Despite people like Bill McCollum.