This just in from Securing Our Children’s Rights (SOCR), a Tampa-based lobbying group organized to secure, protect and preserve equal rights for children of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents in Florida:
Securing Our Children’s Rights, Inc. (SOCR), is pleased to announce HB 3 – Adoption, for the 2010 legislative session, introduced by Representative Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, that is a full repeal of Florida’s ban on adoption by its gay and lesbian citizens. Senator Nan Rich has a companion bill in drafting at this date.
Governor Crist has declared Wednesday, July 22, 2009 as Explore Adoption Day and we must contact Governor Crist and the legislature to Explore Adoption by repealing the ban.
WHEN: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
WHO: Governor Charlie Crist (850) 488-7146 or email to Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com
House Speaker Larry Cretul 850-488-1450 or 352-873-6564 or email to Larry.Cretul@myfloridahouse.gov
Senate President Jeff Atwater 850-487-5100 or 561-625-5101 or email to atwater.jeff.web@flsenate.gov
Your Florida Representative – www.myfloridahouse.gov
Your Florida Senator – www.flsenate.gov
THE ASK:
Please ask the Governor to support the repeal of the adoption ban on gay Floridians and ask him to encourage the legislative leadership to pass the repeal.
Please ask the House Speaker and the Senate President to support the repeal and encourage Committee hearings for the bills.
Please ask your representative and senator to support the repeal, and to become a co-sponsor.
Here are your fun facts and talking points, courtesy of SOCR:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
One of my posts last week, inspired by the human rights violation of California’s prop 8, discussed how the state should recognize the legal equality of all sexual orientations. Florida took a step in the right direction when Judge Cindy Lederman ruled that the laws restricting gay couples from adopting children were unconstitutional.
Martin Gill and his partner brought their case to the court wanting to adopt two brothers that they have been fostering. Lederman ruled that there was no “rational basis” for banning gay couples from adopting. The law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting was 31 years old and it was about time that it was challenged, especially since Florida was the only state with an outright ban on gays and lesbians adopting. This is not the end of the story, however. The decision has already been appealed by the state and is likely, after the appellate court rules, to be heard by Florida’s Supreme Court.
If Florida’s Supreme Court overturns the law then it would ban restrictions statewide, and it should. Here is why: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 22, 2009, at 9:25 am
That’s the message you can draw from the latest Quinnipiac University poll, which shows that Florida voters repudiate two stances the GOP-dominated Legislature has taken: on cigarette taxes and gay adoptions.
Voters support 71 – 26 percent raising the cigarette tax an additional $1 a pack, the independent Quinnipiac (KIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.
The survey also finds that Floridians oppose 55 – 39 percent a state law that prohibits homosexuals from adopting children. Republicans support the law 52 – 43 percent, as do White Evangelical Christians 58 – 37 percent. Democrats oppose the law 61 – 32 percent, along with independent voters 60 – 34 percent.
House leadership, including embattled Speaker Ray Sansom, took the cigarette tax hike off the table before the special session earlier this month even started. The Legislature has also long opposed allowing gay couples to adopt children, even as some gays serve as foster parents.
MIAMI – A Miami Dade Circuit judge ruled today that a gay man and his partner should be able to adopt the two foster children they have raised for four years.
Circuit Judge Cindy S. Lederman “these children are thriving. These words we don’t often hear within these walls. That’s uncontroverted,” said Circuit Judge Cindy S. Lederman.
“They’re a good family. They’re a family in every way except in the eyes of the law. These children have a right to permanancy,” the judge said. “The only real permanancy is adoption in the home where they are thriving.
“There is no rational basis to preclude homosexuals from adopting,” Lederman continued.
A decision was due Tuesday on the request by 47-year-old Martin Gill to adopt two young boys he has been raising as foster children. The state of Florida has fought in court against Gill’s petition to adopt the boys.
Florida has one of the strictest bans on gay adoptions in the country. A judge in Key West ruled in September that the ban was unconstitutional, but that ruling has had limited legal impact.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sided with Gill in the case. The ACLU says there is a shortage of parents for adoptions in Florida, where at a given time there are about 1,000 children waiting to be adopted.
