Martin Gill and James, a foster child he seeks to adopt.
No, this is a real thing. Apparently, Florida (with their thinly closeted Governor, Charlie Crist) decided it’d be a good idea to get a law on the books prohibiting adoption to gay couples.
Doesn’t that seem totally and completely unbelievable? There’s actually a law that specifically states “No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual.”… Staggering.
Check out a compelling article on a gay couple who literally saved two foster brother’s lives, yet have been denied adoption rights, courtesy of Care2:
“This past Saturday, November 21st, was National Adoption Day. A day meant to raise awareness of the children in foster care waiting to find permanent families. This is a great cause worthy of broad support but here in Florida the holiday came and went without addressing the elephant in the room—Florida is the only state to specifically ban members of the LGBT community from adopting a child; although it hypocritically will allow a someone who is gay to foster a child until they are 18. The law specifically states “No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual.” This incongruity is a farce. It violates the rights of Florida’s 20,000+ children who are languishing in foster care, especially the 3,500 who are up for permanent adoption at any one time because it violates their right to permanency. It hurts LGBT individuals and couples who are denied the ability to both provide a public service and to grow their own family. It hurts Florida financially and it hurts the very future of these children.
Currently attention is focused on the case of Martin Gill who is attempting to adopt two foster children who have been in his care since 2004. Gill and his partner had successfully fostered many other children for years so it was not surprising, when the state came to them in 2004 asking them to help out two brothers, John and James, who had just been taken from their parents that night. These children were in need of the special care and attention that the Gills had become well known for providing.
John, age 4, arrived at the Gills with filthy clothes, a severe case of ringworm and was so silent as to be almost comatose. The only time he responded to his environment was when his 4-month old brother, James needed assistance. This 4 year old boy would change his baby brother’s diaper with the practiced skill of someone who had done so all too often.
John used grunts to communicated and hoarded food as if he feared he might never eat again.
These boys had lived in a world of chronic neglect and emotional impoverishment but when they arrived at the Gill home the found the love and care they so desperately needed.
Fast forward to the summer of 2008—Frank Gill attempts to adopt these two boys whose lives one could quite easily say he and his partner, Tom Roe, had saved. To that effect they challenged the states anti-gay adoption law by arguing that the ban violated the Florida Constitution by denying the rights of the children.
Judge Lederman, a circuit-court judge, agreed and ruled the ban unconstitutional thus giving Gill the permission to adopt the boys. Lederman stated, “The constitutional finding is that [the children] have a right to permanence. And permanency is not is not achieved by taking them out of the Gill home where they are thriving” and highlighted that the Gills are “are a family, a good family, in every way, except in the eyes of the law.”
This of course led to an appeal from Florida’s Attorney General’s office who challenged the ruling in an appeal case heard earlier this summer. Currently the Gills are awaiting the verdict but regardless of whether they win or lose the case, it will likely head to Florida’s Supreme Court and should they prove victorious there, one would then expect the anti-gay forces will push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay adoption which would negate the ruling of the courts.
It is obvious to all not caught up anti-gay fervor that the best interest of children are not preserved by prohibiting a gay man such as Martin Gill from adopting. In this particular case, the boys are thriving both socially and academically and everyone who knows the boys, including a state-appointed guardian and a child therapist, say this house is where they belong.”
Shame on you, Florida and congratulations on both being ignorant to the best interest of countless children in need, as well as being on the hellaciously unjust side of a cut and dry civil rights issue.
