By Terri Somers
Sun-Sentinel

March 14, 2002

The two sides weighing in on Florida’s ban on gay adoption agree on one thing: It’s about family values and children.

“I believe in family values. They are my highest value,” Wayne LaRue Smith, a gay foster parent from Key West told more than 100 people gathered for a town hall meeting at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of South Florida in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday night to discuss the ban and watch a television special about it.

Florida’s ban is the toughest in the nation. Smith is one of five gay men challenging Florida law in federal court. So is Steve Lofton, who was profiled along with his family on Primetime Thursday.

Some state legislators and conservative activists from around the country contend gays such as LaRue are immoral and, therefore, in no position to talk about values.

“I think children should be raised in a traditional home by a mother and father,” state House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Ovideo, said on Thursday.

It is immoral to use the ban to limit the pool of loving parents for children who need them, say those looking to change the law.

Those are the battle lines drawn in the sands of Florida.

Activists who want to change the law are hoping the television special and a fervent public education campaign, which includes events such as the town hall meeting and a news conference earlier Thursday will help bring Floridians who are somewhere in the middle over to their side.

“My partner and I are the only gays in our neighborhood, and our neighbors love us,” said Tony Ladt, a foster parent from Sunrise Lakes who attended the town hall meeting.

“People come by our house all the time. They see us doing things with the kids. They break bread with us. They’ve learned we are a normal couple, family,” Ladt said.

“Most people [in Florida] are like my neighbors,” Ladt said. And when they see television shows such as the one aired last night on ABC, in which popular talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell said she is a gay parent who wants the Florida law changed, Ladt thinks Americans will become as accepting as his neighbors.

Kevin Burns and his partner, Rob Flint, attended the town hall meeting with their 5 1/2-month-old daughter, Autumn Hope. The Miami couple established a second home in Vermont, where gay adoptions are allowed, in order to be eligible to become fathers. Their daughter’s birth mother chose them over about 20 other gay and straight couples to raise Autumn Hope.

So, if they could move and adopt a child elsewhere, why do these men want Florida’s law changed?

“Why end slavery in the North and not in the South?” asked Burns, as he changed his daughter’s diaper. “If you can go to the North and be free, is it still right to keep this ban in Florida?”

Many of those gathered for the town hall meeting were not disappointed that the room seemed to be filled with those who shared their view on the gay adoption ban.

Another step in what they see as the enlightenment of America, and Floridians specifically, is educating the gay community about the law and the lawsuit, said Ladt.

“We’re not going to let this issue disappear from the public discourse,” said Matt Coles, who heads the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. Lawyers for the ACLU and the Children First Project at Nova Southeastern University are among the lawyers representing the gay men and their children in their challenge of the law.

Conservative activists like Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, contacted at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., cite studies they think should enlighten America to the opposing view.

There’s an abundance of research that shows children benefit from living in a traditional family with a heterosexual mother and father, Sprigg said.

Those who favor changing the law also have an abundance of studies that conclude children raised by loving gay parents are at no more risk of emotional, psychological or developmental harm than children raised by heterosexual parents.

So what is the public to believe?

“Look at the families,” said Chris Zwisza, of the Children First Project.

“I’d say watch the interview on television tonight [Thursday] and you won’t have a doubt,” Coles said.

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