A Florida appellate court has affirmed a lower court ruling that found bans on gay adoption to be unconstitutional. Florida Governor Charlie Crists has confirmed that in the wake of the appellate court's ruling, the state will cease enforcement of the Florida law. As readers may recall, at the lower court level, one of the prime witnesses for the state was anti-gay George "Rent Boy" Rekers. Thankfully, now the best interest of children will be in the forefront of placement decisions as opposed to cow towing to Christianist anti-gay religious based prejudice. Once again, it is the courts - where REAL objective evidence and rules concerning burdens of proof are controlling - are where LGBT equality is finding advancement. As I stated in an earlier blog post, it seems to me that all the money wasted on lobbying and HRC would be far better utilized recruiting top notch legal teams to challenge anti-gay laws whenever and wherever possible. Here are some highlights from the Miami Herald (Note: the noxious, Christianist Liberty Counsel crowd is NOT happy with the ruling):*
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced Wednesday afternoon he will cease enforcing the state's 33-year-old gay adoption law, which was declared unconstitutional by a Miami appeals court Wednesday morning. Crist lauded the court ruling as ``great'' and told reporters at a 2:30 news conference he would immediately stop enforcing the ban. Crist said he wanted to confer with the adoptive father at the center of the case before deciding whether to appeal. He said, however, that he believes the state Supreme Court wouldn't overturn the court rulings.
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Crist once supported the ban. But the U.S. Senate candidate reversed himself after he left the Republican Party and began courting the liberal vote. A Miami appeals court ruled Wednesday that Florida's ban on gays adopting is unconstitutional and affirmed the controversial adoption of two foster children by a gay North Miami couple.
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The unanimous 3-0 decision deals a critical blow to Florida's 33-year-old law banning adoption by gay men and lesbians, and most likely sends the case to Florida's highest court for resolution.
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The opinion was agreed upon by the three judges who reviewed the case, Gerald B. Cope Jr., Frank A. Shepherd and Vance E. Salter, who wrote a concurring opinion. The 35-page ruling was written by Cope, who also reviewed a similar case this summer involving a lesbian Broward couple.
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``Finally, a piece of 30-year-old prejudice has been struck from the law books in Florida,'' said Howard Simon, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida and represented Gill. ``This is good news for the advancement of human rights and the children in Florida's troubled foster-care system.''
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Mathew Staver, founder of Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, who has fought adoption by gay men and women for many years, said ``I would imagine the state will appeal this decision to the Florida Supreme Court, which is where it needs to go.'' . . . ``We're going to be in this for the long haul,'' Staver added.
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Personally, I would love to see a psychological studied done on Staver. In my opinion, either he's a total parasite who is riding homophobia as far as possible in order to keep shaking down the ignorant and bigoted for money or he's an utter nutcase with severe issues of his own. No one is this militant and anti-gay unless they are overcompensating for something. I have heard from former Lynchburg residents that the Liberty University crowd makes heavy use of gay.com for clandestine hook ups. Perhaps Staver is one of them.
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