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Chink in pointless law gives kids hope

By Sue Carlton, Times staff writer
In print: Saturday, September 27, 2008

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If you are qualified to be a foster parent in Florida, willing to take in one of our many kids in need, and you also happen to be gay, no big deal.

Our state could use the help.

But try this on for hypocrisy.

If you want to adopt a child, one of thousands in need of a stable, loving, permanent home, and acknowledge you are gay, sorry.

Thanks but no thanks.

A section of a Department of Children and Families adoption application, just below the entry for "Arrest Record," separates you from the rest of the world: Section 63.042(3), F.S., states that "no person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual."

I am a homosexual. YES/NO.

Ours is one of the only states to ban gay adoption regardless of how stellar a parent someone might make. This pointless, politically charged law puts us, in terms of practicality and true concern for the welfare of kids, right up there with Mississippi.

But even here in Florida, we get glimmers of hope. Just ask the dad from Key West.

He is not identified by name in court records, but he is a 52-year-old lawyer who is openly gay and in a longtime committed relationship. He has cared for more than 30 kids in state custody.

A boy with special needs was placed in his home in 2001. Ultimately the man was granted permanent guardianship. But the boy, 13, wanted him to be his "forever father," as he said at a hearing.

Why does that final dignity matter so much?

A lawyer who served as co-counsel in the case explained it this way: At a routine doctor's appointment, the man would be asked if this was his son. He would have to answer no.

"He described so powerfully just how absolutely deflated the child would get every time he heard that," says Miami Beach attorney Elizabeth Schwartz.

The man went to court. Reports on him, his home and his ability to be a good father were glowing. Monroe County Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. ruled the gay adoption ban unconstitutional.

The Attorney General's Office doesn't plan to appeal the judge's decision, and without appeal, it likely will not be binding elsewhere. Similar cases have gone nowhere over the years in terms of changing the law. But lawyers hope the judge's well-reasoned ruling can be used as persuasive argument in other cases. A chink in the armor is at least a start.

Why the fear? Chris Card, who has had just about every job you can think of in child welfare, says this: "In my career, I've been involved in lots of child abuse cases and have removed children from lots of different homes due to abuse and neglect. I've not removed a child that I recall from a gay couple."

Statewide, more than 3,000 kids are available for adoption. Yearly, some 800 "age out," which is a too-kind term for those who leave state supervision at 18 without having been adopted.

How many might have fared otherwise if the law made more sense?

"We've got too many kids that need parents," Card says. "We should take anybody who's capable and interested." Judges and child advocates who deal with the raw need tend to echo that.

In spite of everything, in a county south of us, a boy got his forever father. Maybe there's hope for us, too.