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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 20, 2001
Florida has 3,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption. That's 3,000 boys and girls who want nothing more than to have a loving, caring adult who will take legal responsibility for them. But the state of Florida blocks thousands of its citizens from giving of themselves in this way. Not because they are incompetent, negligent, unprepared or sickly, but simply because they are gay.
Florida is the only state in the nation with a statute prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting children (although two states, Mississippi and Utah, recently barred same-sex couples from adopting). The law, passed in 1977, was part of the anti-gay rights crusade of former beauty queen and Florida orange juice promoter Anita Bryant. At the time, Bryant whipped up sentiment with her "Save Our Children" campaign by demonizing homosexuals as dangerous role models. Today we know through multiple longitudinal social science studies that children of gay parents are no more likely to become homosexual themselves than are children of heterosexuals. And we also know, through the personal experiences of millions of American homosexuals, that being gay is not a lifestyle choice, but a sexual orientation.
Even the Department of Children and Families recognizes that gays and lesbians can make fine guardians for children and routinely places foster children in homosexual households. Wayne Smith, who runs a commercial law firm and his partner Dan Skahen, a real estate broker, have cared for seven foster children in the last 16 months. They decided to join a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge the state's discriminatory practice of prohibiting gays from adopting. Smith says he decided to join the suit after realizing that his married sister would not be able to designate him as her children's adoptive parent if she and her husband died.
Another plaintiff in the case, Doug Houghton, has an even more compelling story. Houghton, a nurse practitioner, wants to adopt 9-year-old Oscar Williams, a child for whom he's been caring for the last six years. Houghton has helped Oscar through learning disabilities and health problems and he's the boy's legal guardian, but state law blocks him from making it a true father-son relationship.
The case challenging the law is expected to come to trial in a few months. But this badly outdated statute should never have been left on the books to do this kind of damage to potential Florida families. The Legislature should have repealed it long ago.
Certainly the best arrangement for any child is to be raised in a loving, traditional, two-parent household, but that's not a realistic option for many. Older foster children and those with special needs are particularly hard to place. They would happily settle for just one parent -- gay or straight -- if only the state would get out of the way.