After 17 homes in 2 months, girl improved with men's help
Florida challenges the two men's custody of two sisters, saying not enough was done to find a traditional couple to adopt them.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published August 24, 2004
LARGO - She was a girl so violent, temperamental and out of control that she was sent to 17 different foster homes in two months.
Finally, in desperation, caseworker Dana Curley called a foster parent she knew and pleaded with him to take in the girl for one single weekend.
That's how the little girl, now 7, came to live in a home headed by two gay men, an arrangement made by social workers hired under a contract signed by the state Department of Children and Families. The girl's sister, now 6, soon followed.
Not long after, the caseworker was writing in progress notes that the older girl was "doing better than she ever has in any home." And the girls have now stayed there more than a year.
But the arrangement has led to a court battle between the state, which says it erred by not looking harder for families to adopt the girls, and the couple, who say they are providing a loving home in an arrangement that was later sanctioned by a Circuit Court judge.
Curley testified about the arrangement during a court hearing Monday.
The underlying issue is Florida law, which prevents gay people from adopting children. It does not prevent them from serving as foster parents, who take in abused and neglected children on a temporary basis. Because of the law, caseworkers considered the girls' placement to be a temporary one.
But caseworkers came to believe that the household of Curtis Watson and his life partner, who does not wish to be named, would be the best permanent home for the girls, even though the law bars them from adopting. Eventually a judge approved "long-term, nonrelative custody" to the two men. This gave the men legal custody but was a step short of actually allowing them to adopt the girls.
Curley said she wasn't thinking of the couple as permanent parents when she arranged for the first girl to stay with them. One reason, she testified Monday, was her belief that "the girls need a mommy."
She said she worked intently to find a permanent adoptive home for the two girls, and also for their younger sister, who was staying in another foster home. As someone who had successfully helped find adoptive parents for 22 out of 22 previous foster children she had worked with, Curley was convinced she could find someone this time.
But several factors complicated her efforts. The older girl's behavior scared off many prospective adoptive parents. One couple that was interested in adopting all three girls was deemed unsuitable. And the two older girls repeatedly picked on and beat up the younger one, complicating efforts to keep them together.
In the meantime, the girls flourished with their two dads, Curley said. "They were able to control behavior that no one else had been able to control," Curley said. She said the couple proved to be "very caring and loving and like any other parents, except that they're not a man and a woman."
She says that led her to agree with other officials who suggested allowing the girls to stay permanently with Watson and his partner.
Assistant State Attorney Dane DiSano questioned Curley about a document saying that only two families had been given consideration as possible adoptive parents, but she said the actual number was much higher.
