The Sunshine State ranks in the bottom half of the country on various critical indexes, such as education spending (36th nationally), uninsured children (49th as of a year ago) and juvenile incarceration rates (48th, meaning we jail more juveniles than 47 other states).
But there’s one stat where Florida is number one: We're the only state in the U.S. that explicitly bans gays and lesbians from adopting children.
That dubious distinction could soon change, however. In November of 2008, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the ban violated the state’s equal protection guarantees by singling out gay parents (who can be foster parents but are barred from permanently adopting). She ruled in the case for Martin Gill, the North Miami flight attendant who has become the trailblazer in the fight against the law, which was passed by the FL legislature in 1977 after a campaign by anti-gay crusader and OJ queen Anita Bryant. Lederman's ruling concluded that there was consensus among researchers that there is no reason to prohibit adoptions by gays and lesbians.
Gill talks about his long legal struggle Friday June 18 at an LGBT Family Town Hall at the King of Peace MCC from 7-8:30 p.m., along with his lawyer, the ACLU's Shelbi Day, and Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith. A workshop Saturday June 19 at King of Peace will train volunteers interested in working toward a repeal of the adoption ban.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.