Florida Adoption Ban Unconstitutional

A Florida court delivered another pie to Anita Bryant today when it ruled the state's ban on gay adoption unconstitutional.

''This is the forum where we try to heal children, find permanent families for them so they can get another chance at what every child should know and feel from birth, and go on to lead productive lives,'' Lederman said in court before releasing the order. ``We pray for them to thrive, but that is a word we rarely hear in dependency court.''

''These children are thriving;

The Miami Herald had the details.

A Virtual Pie In Anita Bryant's Face

A Florida circuit court judge has declared the 31-year-old law banning gay adoption as unconstitutional. This law was the result of Anita Bryant's vicious slur campaign against GLBT people.

The law also brought a big fat pie to Bryant's face as well as the Florida orange juice boycott because Bryant was the spokesperson for the Florida Orange Grower's Association.

The boycott was also the beginning of the end of Bryant's career.

The Miami Herald reports, A Monroe Circuit Court judge has ruled Florida's 31-year-old gay adoption ban ''unconstitutional'' in an order that allows an openly gay Key West foster parent to adopt a teenage boy he has raised since 2001.

Declaring the adoption to be in the boy's ''best interest,'' Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. said the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

Florida is one of only two states -- the other is Mississippi -- that forbids gay people from adopting.

Circuit judges in Florida have found the statute unconstitutional twice before, both in 1991, but both challenges stalled. A Miami case expected to be heard next month may provide an additional challenge to the law.


And since schadenfreude seems to be appropriate today, here's something for your enjoyment.