Florida Circuit Court Invalidates Gay Adoption Ban

"Based on the evidence presented from experts from all over this country and abroad, it is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person’s ability to parent...The most important factor in ensuring a well adjusted child is the quality of parenting... More importantly, sexual orientation, solely, should not interfere with a child’s right to enjoy the accoutrements of a legal family... [T]his Court is satisfied that the issue is so far beyond dispute that it would be irrational to hold otherwise; the best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption. [T]he exclusion forbidding homosexuals to adopt children does not further the public morality interest it seeks to combat. Based on this scenario, there can be no rationally related public morality interest differentiating in the State’s support of a homosexual’s long-term foster care relationship with a child and a denial of their legal relationship through adoption... The contradiction between the adoption and foster care statutes defeats the public morality argument and is thus not rationally related to serving a governmental interest. This Court finds Fla. Stat. §63.042(3) violates the Petitioner and the Children’s equal protection rights guaranteed by... the Florida Constitution without satisfying a rational basis. Moreover, the statutory exclusion defeats a child’s right to permanency as provided by federal and state law... Judge Cindy Lederman, Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County, Florida Juvenile Division, November 25, 2008