Why Gay Adoption Matters in the Florida Governor's Race

AdoptionFlorida is one of two states that have instituted bans on adoption for LGBT families, sharing the dubious honor with Arkansas. Thankfully, there's movement in Florida to overturn this out-dated law that not only fosters homophobia, but punishes children by keeping them away from healthy families.

First a judge last year in Miami ruled that the ban on gay adoption was illegal. Then came word this week that a candidate for governor in Florida, Alex Sink, supports overturning the ban.

That's huge news, in part because Alex Sink's opponent in the Governor's race -- current state Attorney General Bill McCollum -- proudly defends the ban on gay adoption and believes that homosexuality fosters depression and psychological illness. Those are McCollum's exact words in a lawsuit filed to keep the gay adoption ban in place. Seems like he'd rather have children languish in America's foster care system than see them placed with qualified and outstanding parents.

To be clear, nearly every single study on adoption shows that not only do children do well when they are placed with LGBT parents, but they in some cases outperform children raised by straight parents. Moreover, massive numbers of studies show that gay parents are just as gifted and qualified to raise children than straight parents.

Sink's comments underscore that very fact, and place Florida children above partisan social issue politics. McCollum's words and deeds, on the contrary, keep children from being raised in healthy homes, and hold them hostage to a right-wing agenda hell-bent on using faith instead of science and the principle of equality to best determine state adoption policy.

Sink gave her remarks at a fundraiser for Equality Florida, the state's largest LGBT rights group. During the event, which raised upwards of $175,000 for equal rights in Florida, Sink said that there's nothing wrong with gay parents adopting if they'll provide happy and healthy homes for children.

"We need a system in which all of our children are assured that they live in a healthy, loving home -- a home that's determined not by any law," Sink said. "As a mom I think it has to go by every individual case and no one or one individual ought to be automatically discriminated against. The judge should go by what is best for the child."

Oddly enough, McCollum has won some plaudits from gay rights groups for supporting expanded hate crimes protections in the state that included sexual orientation. In 2004, a political opponent even branded him a "darling of homosexual activists." But that support for hate crimes laws hasn't translated over to working toward an end to Florida's gay adoption ban. At least not yet.

It's an awesome sign that a year before the election, this is becoming an issue in the Florida governor's race. That gives 11 more months to keep hammering away at the issue, in hopes that voters remember Florida kids -- who are ultimately the losers in this ban on gay adoption -- when they cast their ballot next year.

(Photo courtesy of Raphael Goetter's photostream on Flickr.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

Comments (12)

  • Edwin Bonilla
    Nov 18, 2009 @ 08:37PM PT
    Edwin Bonilla

    Bill McCollum is an intolerant conservative with an incorrect view of LGBT rights, thus is why his comment on LGBT people is nonsense. Every state of the United States must pass a law, if not already, which will allow LGBT couples to adopt children. Because children need good parents, it's more like a privilege. LGBT couples can definitely be exceptional parents that must not be kept from adopting children so that their children can be raised well. Hopefully, Alex Sink will win next year because there can't be oppression against LGBT couples when it comes to them adopting.

  • Peter  S. T.
    Nov 18, 2009 @ 10:52PM PT
    Peter S. T.

     

    It is because of people like him that the kids are depressed and have psychological problem. It  is people like him that believe that kids grow up wrong and are wrong despite the overwhelming psychological findings.  In nearly every study showed that every gay parent’s children do just as well or maybe better than children raised by straight parents.   Attorney General Bill McCollum - What s your beef here don’t you trust these psychologists?  Why are you taking that position? Is it politically driven or you actually feel this way? Where are you running to Bill is it nowhere?

     

  • R B
    Nov 19, 2009 @ 02:28AM PT
    R B

    Ironicly, I signed a petition sometime ago to help overturn a law in florida that somehow made it legal to have sex with animals...

    And yet theyve outlawed same sex marriage...

    Kinda makes you wonder if the bible thumpers aint trying to get back to their uhhhhh ancient traditions of messing with sheep ?

  • Peter  S. T.
    Nov 19, 2009 @ 03:14AM PT
    Peter S. T.

    LOL

  • Martin Martinez
    Nov 19, 2009 @ 03:44AM PT
    Martin Martinez

    Gay parents can give them a loving home same as straight people. Children are not going to be gay because their parents are.

    • Peter  S. T.
      Nov 19, 2009 @ 03:53AM PT
      Peter S. T.

      Yes they can and They will  not turn gay unless they are already!

    • Reply to thread
  • Paul Hockhousen
    Nov 19, 2009 @ 09:27AM PT
    Paul Hockhousen

    The answer to why there this horrific ban exists is right in the article.  Children raised by LGBT parents are often more successful than children raised by hetero parents.

    That means we make them look bad, so they banned adoption in order to save their own image.

    In all seriousness, this ban is f*cking stupid, and needs to be removed.

  • Martin Martinez
    Nov 19, 2009 @ 09:46AM PT
    Martin Martinez

    You have said it correctly Paul.Thanks for your comments.

  • Alex Edelman
    Nov 22, 2009 @ 11:34AM PT
    Alex Edelman

    Okay, I'm going to be as clear as possible about this, because it is very important.

    What someone puts in a legal document is not "what they believe."

    When someone I know's law firm was retained to defend the Swiss banks against claims they had held (and were still holding) Nazi gold, the numerous Jewish lawyers who worked on the case didn't all believe the Swiss should keep the gold stolen from Jews. They presented legal arguments as part of their zealous representation of their clients.

    Mr. McCollum is a public servant, and his job is to be the First Lawyer for the state of Florida. It is that state's policy (enacted by legitimate, democratic means) to prevent people from giving children loving homes because of who those people love. You may (quite rightly) think that is stupid, but it is the law.

    Now, if Mr. McCollum is supporting that position is his campaign literature, if he is hate mongering for his own political gain then he deserves relegation to the trash heap of history with George Wallace and Jesse Helms. He also deserves our vigorous opposition.

    BUT it is incorrect and intellectually dishonest to attribute what an attorney, in the course of his job, puts in a legal document to his views. Just as it would be wrong to say a trauma surgeon who treats a rapist with a bullet wound supports rape.

    • Michael Jones
      Nov 22, 2009 @ 12:09PM PT
      Michael Jones

      I think you're right Alex, but the picture isn't as crystal clear as that. First, an Attorney General would be able to temper language, even if they HAVE to defend a state law. If McCollum felt he needed to defend the law, he could have done so without saying that LGBT people are psychologically screwed up.

      Second, there are cases where Attorneys General don't defend state law. Take Jerry Brown in California, and his non-defense of Proposition 8. I'm not sure of Florida state law, but nationally in other states there is a precedent of Attorneys Genereal taking opposite positions on some state laws.

    • Reply to thread
  • Peter  S. T.
    Nov 22, 2009 @ 11:51PM PT
    Peter S. T.

     

    Christian Fundamentalists are the evil that is disguising itself as good and using our political system to recreate a world that didn’t work before.  Why advertize their evil plan to reinvent to world, to appear friendly in the eye and hearts of public while throwing little insulting contradictions like that of Sarah Palin? Some of best friends are bigots but she has been quoted as saying, “I don’t hate gay people, I just believe traditional marriage.”  What does that mean? Scalia interpreting our rights as Sodomy, the Catholic Church coming up with a cure for Gay people, even after strong evidence from the APA, that dangerous to poke into people brains or take any means to make Gays celibate, does that make sense?  And Bill McCollum against adoption in Florida -Are we people or not?  What are they saying are that we are that unlovable?

    You want Utopia - the world in your own sense.  You want the world full of hate, full of liars, full of cheaters and full of killers too,  oh my ! Don't forget to pray for a better day because you going to the feel the liars, cheaters, killers, and eventually kill you.  Do you think that women will be afraid to die?

     

    You want your women barefoot and pregnant don't you think they will burn you alive, like in a blaze, have you ever seen the burning bed? You better learn to plant seeds, grow your own food, till your own land, you got the control you have always wanted- Do you is think the people under you won’t care when the work is left for them to do? What do you want more?  How will you have kids?

    Will GOD love you more if you kill his covenant creatures? Do you think God will love you more because now you stand hoping and desperately crying and praying for Sunday? Chico, whatever you want your can have but don’t ask me to feel sorry for you when your hands are bleeding because you got what you asked for nothing?

    Women and you are natural and the rest of us are freaks but we are still a man and a woman what in the world has to been built on! Your Psychologist is questionable!!!! And your philosophy is questionable!!!!!!

    Why has having power important to you to be reborn as what a dog?  How does it affect your plan, of what you think is God’s plan, and what is your reward? 

  • Peter  S. T.
    Nov 22, 2009 @ 11:57PM PT
    Peter S. T.

    Correction : That & are

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