Florida bill will repeal gay adoption ban

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • March 12, 2009 - 11:04

The bill will repeal a 1977 law

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A bill to repeal a 1977 ruling against gays and lesbians adopting in Florida, US, has been introduced.

It is sponsored by state senator Nan Rich, a Democrat from Weston, who is introducing another bill to grant judges the discretion to determine adoptions solely on “the best interests” of the child.

She told the Miami Herald: "Someone who is a good parent – whether they are heterosexual or homosexual – that's what we should be basing decisions on, not sexual orientation.

"We need to be looking at what's in the best interest of children.”

Last summer, Miami-Dade circuit judge Cindy Lederman ruled that two gay men in the state could legally adopt the four and eight-year-old half-brothers they had cared for since 2004.

Her 53-page ruling found the law to be unconstitutional and to have “no rational basis.”

This week, a judge ordered that a pro-gay student club at a Florida school must be allowed to meet.

District judge Henry Adams issued the decision yesterday in a case involving two students from Yullee High School near Jacksonville.

Hannah Page and Jacob Brock had formed a Gay-Straight Alliance club after being targeted with abuse by other students, but the school objected to the group's name.