Judge: Florida's ban on gay adoptions is valid

http://www.miami.com/c/community/people/gay_and_lesbian/locdocs/003536.htm

MIAMI -- (AP) -- A federal judge ruled Thursday that Florida's law banning homosexuals from adopting children is valid, saying the state has a legitimate interest in only allowing married couples to adopt.

The law is considered the nation's toughest ban on gay adoptions, prohibiting adoptions by any gay or lesbian individual or couple. Mississippi and Utah also ban adoptions by same-sex couples.

U.S. Judge James Lawrence King accepted the state's argument that the law was in children's best interests because married heterosexuals provide children with a more stable home.

``Plaintiffs have not asserted that they can demonstrate that homosexual families are equivalently stable, are able to provide proper gender identification or are no more socially stigmatizing than married heterosexual families,'' said King, senior judge for the Miami-based U.S. Southern District of Florida.

Steven Lofton and Douglas Houghton filed the lawsuit after being told the could not adopt children in their care. Lofton, a foster parent, wanted to adopt a 10-year-old boy he has raised since infancy. Houghton is the guardian of a 9-year-old boy.

The men challenged Florida's adoption laws, arguing that they discriminate against homosexuals.

King, however, said in his ruling that ``given there is no fundamental right to adopt or be adopted, there can be no fundamental right to apply for adoption.''

The judge did discount the state's argument that the law is legitimate because it reflects the state's disapproval of homosexuality.

``The Court cannot accept that moral disapproval of homosexuals or homosexuality serves a legitimate state interest,'' he wrote.

But the state also argued that it's in a child's best interest to be raised in home with a married mother and father.

``Plaintiffs concede that categorically barring homosexuals from adoption in the best interest of Florida's children is on its face a legitimate purpose,'' King said.

King noted that Florida Department of Children and Families considers families where there is a mother and father to be important for the child's well-rounded growth and development.

``Primary consideration is given to couples who have been married a sufficient length of time to establish stability so that even couples married less than two years are scrutinized particularly carefully,'' King wrote. ``Moreover, heterosexual unmarried couples living together in a sexually cohabitating relationship will not be considered by DCF as joint adoptive parents.''

Department of Children and Families officials were not immediately available for comment.

However, the department's Web site says, ``Most adults who can provide a stable, loving home to a child can adopt ... In most cases married couples, single parents, working mothers, parents who already have children, people who live in apartments, and people of any religious faith, race, and education level will be considered.''

Elizabeth Schwartz, a lawyer for Lofton and Houghton, said King was mistaken when he said that the plaintiffs agree married couples provide better homes.

``We never would have said that,'' she said. ``There's something substantially wrong. It seems like there's a disconnect here. There's something that's not adding up.''

She said Lofton, who lives in Oregon and is caring for three Florida foster children, will now likely have the children taken away from him.

``They are likely to be removed from their home and ripped apart and DCF has no problem with that because their goal is permanency. And that's our goal too.''

Lisa Gates, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush, said he supports the ruling, but declined further comment.