Friday, March 15, 2002

By ALEX VEIGA
The Associated Press

MIAMI -- Touting support from talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell and thousands of Floridians, opponents of a state ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians called on Gov. Jeb Bush and lawmakers Thursday to repeal the law.

"People need to be judged on their individual fitness as to whether or not they can be adoptive parents," said Matt Coles, national director of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. "This law is going to come down."

An e-mail campaign directed at Bush and the state's adoption agency has generated 80,000 messages, including about 10,000 from Florida, Coles said.

A federal judge rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the law last year, but civil liberties groups are appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

A gay foster father who expressed an interest in adopting a 10-year-old HIV positive boy is covered by the lawsuit. He has been told by state officials that they will remove the child he raised from a baby if other adoptive parents can be found.

A form e-mail letter offered at the ACLU Web site www.lethimstay.com says, "The gay adoption ban has no basis in child welfare."

Florida is the only state with a law prohibiting all gay people, both couples and individuals, from adopting. It doesn't bar gays from being foster parents.

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