Ex-legislators renounce ban on gay adoptions they passed in 1977

By Terri Somers
Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 7 2002

Florida’s ban on gay adoption, already under scrutiny in federal court, now is being criticized by some of the politicians who made it law.

“The hysteria of the times led us to do the wrong thing,” said Elaine Bloom, a former legislator from Miami Beach who voted in favor of the ban in 1977 at the height of singer/activist Anita Bryant’s crusade against gay rights.

Bloom, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, persuaded a former state Senate president and U.S. congressman, Harry Johnston, and at least eight other former Florida legislators to sign a statement that says they made a mistake. They hope to see the toughest gay adoption ban in the country repealed.

“In 1977, we were among the state legislators who helped pass Florida’s law prohibiting gay people from adopting children. We now realize that we were wrong. This discriminatory law prevents children from being adopted into loving, supportive homes — and we hope it will be overturned,” the former legislators said in their statement released Thursday by the ACLU.

ACLU lawyers are representing four gay men who want to adopt and are challenging the law’s constitutionality in federal court.

“Now that this law has been repudiated by some of the very people who helped pass it, there should be no question that it’s time to get rid of it,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

The statements will not be made part of the lawsuit. But the former legislators hope they can still play a role in the court of public opinion, influencing current legislators and perhaps even the judges in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta, which will consider the law’s constitutionality later this year.

“I’m so very proud of things I did during my 18 1/2 years in the Florida Legislature,” said Bloom, whose son is openly gay and a father. “But this is one instance in which I have to look back and say I did something wrong.

“What is important to recognize is that children are at the heart of this issue,” she said, referring to the 3,400 in Florida who are awaiting adoption.

It was Bloom who worked the telephone, calling her former legislative colleagues and asking them to admit that, like her, they had made a mistake.

The mostly moderate Democrats who agreed include Johnston of West Palm Beach; former House Speaker Tom Gustafson of Fort Lauderdale; former House members Tony Fontana and Barry Kutun of Fisher Island; and former Sens. Sherrill “Pete” Skinner of Lake City, Paul Steinberg of Miami Beach, Sam Bell of Tallahassee and Sherman Winn of Miami.

“Good adoptive parents for ALL kids comes first,” Gustafson wrote at the bottom of his statement in support of repealing the law.

To understand how the law was born requires an understanding of the political and social climate of Florida in 1977, said the former legislators.

“I didn’t think it would really affect anyone because no one really knew who was gay or lesbian. People weren’t out,” said Bloom, explaining why she voted in favor of the adoption ban.

The word “gay” was not even commonly used, explained Johnston, a Democrat who voted for the ban. “I was motivated by politics and ignorance at the time,” he said.

The bill’s sponsor, the late state Sen. Curtis Petersen, told a newspaper that the law was intended to send a message to lesbians and gay men: “We are really tired of you. We wish you’d go back in the closet.”

Don Chamberlin, a Democrat from Clearwater, was the lone member of the state Senate who spoke against the bill when it was being debated. The next year Chamberlin was defeated by a candidate who pounced upon his stance on gay adoption, said Johnston.

Much has changed in the past 25 years, the former legislators said.

“Now there aren’t too many people who can say that they couldn’t somehow be touched by this ban through a brother, or a cousin, or a friend, or a co-worker,” said Johnston.

In the past two months, several of the nation’s most respected children’s advocacy groups and the American Academy of Pediatrics have said children of loving gay parents are no more likely to suffer social, psychological or emotional harm than children raised by heterosexual parents.

The Child Welfare League, which sets national standards for policy and programs for children, filed a motion with the federal appeals court in support of overturning the law. In its legal papers the organization said Florida’s ban on gay adoption doesn’t have any basis in child welfare and “frustrates the best interests of children because it denies children awaiting adoption the benefits of permanent, loving families.”

Changing societal views and these pointed statements from nationally respected children’s welfare groups are not likely to have much effect on the current state Legislature, and not just because no more bills can be introduced this late in the session. Republicans of a more conservative stripe than the Democrats who were in control when the gay adoption ban was passed are now the majority party.

“Many Florida Republicans still have the same mindset we had 25 years ago when it comes to gays,” said Johnston. “I don’t see them being that human rights-oriented, or the governor for that matter.”

Republican leaders could not be reached for a response late Thursday.

State leaders are fighting the court challenge to the adoption law. And last month former House Majority Leader Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said it was doubtful a change in the law would come up for debate.

“Of course, everything is always open for discussion and debate,” Fasano said. “However, it would take a lot to convince me to change the law as it is now. I’m a big believer that a man and woman who are married should be the parents of children.”

But hope springs eternal, said Johnston.

“Maybe it could be an issue in the election next year. Human rights people can ask candidates to take a stand on it.”

And the gay rights activists who worked with Bloom to get the others to say they made a mistake remain hopeful as well.

“These former legislators have shown courage and leadership in stepping forward to right this wrong,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. “Is there anyone left who can seriously defend this law?”

Terri Somers can be reached at tsomers@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4849.

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press

September 7, 2001

MIAMI -- Elaine Bloom has come to regret the day 24 years ago that she joined fellow members of the Legislature in voting to bar gays from adopting children.

``I have a grandson that's being brought up by two fathers,'' the former state representative said. ``They are doing a magnificent job. They are two wonderfully devoted fathers. I just wish all children were as happy and well-adjusted as he is and bright and eager and loved.''

She ruefully recalled that vote last week, when a federal judge upheld the 1977 law, which was passed around the time Anita Bryant, the TV spokeswoman for Florida's citrus industry, went on a crusade against a Dade County ordinance protecting homosexuals from discrimination.

``It was in the midst of the Anita Bryant hysteria,'' Bloom said. ``We were wrong to let it get past us like that. Many were people like me who were considered moderate, traditional-type Democrats who just didn't want to make a major hurdle at the time because of the backlash.

Since the court ruling, gay rights activists have vowed to keep on fighting to get the law off the books, by way of either the courts or the Legislature.

But the chances of the Legislature repealing the measure are seen as close to zero.

Florida is the first and only state with a law specifically banning any homosexual from adopting.

Utah and Mississippi do not allow same-sex couples to adopt but have no prohibition against adoptions by gay individuals.

``Florida has a such a dubious distinction of having the most heinous law in the country,'' said David Smith, spokesman for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign. ``We would do whatever we could to overturn it.''

In a case brought by two gay men who wanted to adopt foster children already in their care, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King upheld the law Aug. 30, accepting the state's argument that married heterosexuals provide a more stable home. It was the first time a federal judge ruled on such a law. The plaintiffs plan to appeal. The other option would be to ask lawmakers to repeal the law.

But former state Rep. Suzanne Jacobs tried that in 1992.

``It was the first bill I ever filed,'' she recalled. ``I was a freshie and I didn't know any better in the sense I didn't realize what was going to happen to me.''

She got hate mail from people ``accusing me of every evil known to mankind, up to including satanic rituals.''

Jacobs said she was also pulled aside and told the bill had no chance of passing. She was promised an hour of debate in committee if she agreed to withdraw the bill afterward.

``The floodgates opened up,'' she said. Other legislators ``did a whole dog-and-pony show and unleashed the most reprehensible, the most disgusting diatribe against gays that I heard in my life. They were talking about gays going to bathhouses and having 100 partners a night _ things that have nothing to do with parenting.''

And she believes it would be even more difficult to repeal the law today, with Republicans holding overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.

``The temper and the tone of Tallahassee is much more conservative, much more rigid and much more looking back than when I got there in 1992,'' she said. ``With the right-wing Republicans, it's not a happy place these days.''

Republican Gov. Jeb Bush said he supports the judge's ruling but would not comment further. The top-ranking Republicans in the Legislature, House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay, did not return calls for comment.

Republican state Rep. Jerry Melvin, who was a conservative Democrat when he voted for the gay adoption ban in 1977, said he would fight any attempt at repeal.

``It just shows the moral decay that our country's continuing to come under when people try to destroy any type of law that upholds the family structure of our nation,'' he said. ``I'm just an old prude, I guess, but that's my standards.''

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, said gays will not let up the fight.

``It's our hope they'll make their voices heard this session and how ever many sessions it takes to repeal this law,'' she said. ``The ruling dealt a severe blow for the legal challenge, but it's far from over. It's certainly not the last word. But the good news is it has drawn attention to a law that most people are shocked to discover even exists.''