Tuesday night President Obama hosted an event at the White House in honor of gay pride month. He told activists that he'll continue to pay for gay rights, including benefits for same-sex partners and repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military.
The Associated Press reports that earlier in the day the Labor Department had broadened the definition of "son and daughter
The Labor Department on Tuesday announced it has broadened the definition of “son and daughter” so employers would be required to offer workers in same-sex relationships the right to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for partners’ newborns or to adopt. The move, coming less than five months before November’s congressional elections, incited conservatives and Republicans who stood in lockstep against the Obama administration’s earlier efforts to repeal a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
Among those in attendance Tuesday night was Equality Florida's Nadine Smith, who presented Obama with a letter calling upon him to take action against Florida's 33-year old law banning same sex adoption.
Florida's ban on gay adoption is featured in the current issue of CL that you can read here.
The Sunshine State is the only state in the nation that explicitly bars such gay adoptions. 47-year-old Frank Gill took in two foster children back before Christmas of 2004, but two years later the Department of Children and Families tried to take the boys back, because Gill and his partner are gay.
With the assistance of the ACLU, Gill fought back and won his case in a Miami/Dade-County Circuit Court in November of 2008, when Judge Cindy Lederman ruled the ban unconstitutional.
Unfortunately for Gill, the state appealed the case. The ruling is expected to come down any week now.
