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A local columnist in Orlando wrote an excellent article on a very expensive battle the State of Florida is fighting to keep a gay couple from adopting their foster kids.
The state encourages gays to become foster parents, but will spend enough money to raise several kids on a needless lawsuit to prevent gays from adopting.
If there are any posters here who would not allow the people in the following story to adopt their foster kids, please explain why.
State's hypocrisy on gay adoptions could tear apart this family
Frank Gill and his partner rescued two abused brothers, now ages 4 and 8, from a Miami crack house. The foster parents provided a loving home that healed physical and emotional damage.
And now the Department of Children and Families, which gave the boys over to Gill, is trying to break up the family, spending $260,000 so far on the legal effort.
-snip-
The state recruits gays to serve as foster parents because many provide nurturing shelter for Florida's growing number of abandoned and abused kids.
The state normally would encourage Gill's request to adopt the brothers.
But a 1977 law bans gay adoptions in Florida.
So we have this hypocritical situation in which the state acknowledges gays as good parents while at the same time denying them parenthood.
-snip-
...Attorney General Bill McCollum's office put on a Byzantine case against Gill's adoption request.
-snip-
The attorney general's main expert witnesses was George Rekers, a Miami clinical psychologist and Baptist minister who believes gays are immoral and has written that gay activists are trying to legalize pedophilia. He argues gays are more prone to depressive disorders, substance abuse and unstable relationships, disqualifying them as adoptive parents.
Gill's attorneys refuted the state with nationally known experts in health, adoption and child welfare from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the UCLA School of Public Health, Rutgers University and the University of Miami medical school.
-snip-
"The state looked for credible, well-respected social scientists to testify in court on its behalf," said Bob Rosenwald, one of Gill's attorneys. "But there were no serious scientists who would take its position."
Not even for the $60,900 the state paid Rekers.
-snip-
DCF is fighting Gill because it fears a political backlash from social conservatives if he is allowed to adopt the boys. They could bring intense political pressure to ban gay foster parents. That would be devastating, particularly as the economy worsens, the number of abuse cases rises and the state's resources dwindle.
State's hypocrisy on gay adoptions could tear apart this family -- OrlandoSentinel.com
The state encourages gays to become foster parents, but will spend enough money to raise several kids on a needless lawsuit to prevent gays from adopting.
If there are any posters here who would not allow the people in the following story to adopt their foster kids, please explain why.
State's hypocrisy on gay adoptions could tear apart this family
Frank Gill and his partner rescued two abused brothers, now ages 4 and 8, from a Miami crack house. The foster parents provided a loving home that healed physical and emotional damage.
And now the Department of Children and Families, which gave the boys over to Gill, is trying to break up the family, spending $260,000 so far on the legal effort.
-snip-
The state recruits gays to serve as foster parents because many provide nurturing shelter for Florida's growing number of abandoned and abused kids.
The state normally would encourage Gill's request to adopt the brothers.
But a 1977 law bans gay adoptions in Florida.
So we have this hypocritical situation in which the state acknowledges gays as good parents while at the same time denying them parenthood.
-snip-
...Attorney General Bill McCollum's office put on a Byzantine case against Gill's adoption request.
-snip-
The attorney general's main expert witnesses was George Rekers, a Miami clinical psychologist and Baptist minister who believes gays are immoral and has written that gay activists are trying to legalize pedophilia. He argues gays are more prone to depressive disorders, substance abuse and unstable relationships, disqualifying them as adoptive parents.
Gill's attorneys refuted the state with nationally known experts in health, adoption and child welfare from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the UCLA School of Public Health, Rutgers University and the University of Miami medical school.
-snip-
"The state looked for credible, well-respected social scientists to testify in court on its behalf," said Bob Rosenwald, one of Gill's attorneys. "But there were no serious scientists who would take its position."
Not even for the $60,900 the state paid Rekers.
-snip-
DCF is fighting Gill because it fears a political backlash from social conservatives if he is allowed to adopt the boys. They could bring intense political pressure to ban gay foster parents. That would be devastating, particularly as the economy worsens, the number of abuse cases rises and the state's resources dwindle.
State's hypocrisy on gay adoptions could tear apart this family -- OrlandoSentinel.com
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