Oct 2, 2008 9:42 am US/Eastern
Gay Man Challenges State's Gay Adoption Ban
He And Life Partner Want to Permanently Adopt Two Boys
They Have Been Foster Parents To For Four Years
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Frank Martin Gill walked into a Miami-Dade courtroom Wednesday looking to keep the two boys he has been father to for the last four years. Gill would be permitted to adopt the children - if he weren't gay. Florida is the only state in the nation to permit gay people to act as foster parents, but not adopt children permanently.
"The other 49 states can't all be wrong, can they?" Gil wondered, while talking to reporters.
"What we're doing here today, I truly believe, is in the best interests of my kids," Gil said. "I'm trying to give them a permanent home."
The boys, now four and eight years old, were taken from their crack-smoking, abusive birth parents by the Department of Children and Family Services. The agency, along with the Attorney General's office, is defending the state's ban on gay adoption in a trial before Judge Cindy Lederman. The trial, because it involves adoption, is closed to the media and the public.
In court papers obtained by The Miami Herald, Attorney General Bill McCollum's office defends the prohibition on gay adoption, in the interest of "promoting the moral…well-being of minor children."
Governor Charlie Crist, who has supported the ban, told The Herald he has "no second thoughts" on his position.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing Gil in challenging the state law as unconstitutional.
"At stake in this case," ACLU attorney Robert Rosenwald said, "is whether these kids, who are doing great, can stay in the only home they've known for the last four years."
A court-appointed guardian ad-litem for the children, and an attorney appointed to represent them in the court case, have filed court papers supporting the adoption petition brought by Gill and his life partner. The life partner is not being identified, to protect the confidentiality of a third child who has his last name.
The attorney for the other children, Hillary Bass, told
CBS4's Gary Nelson at court Wednesday, "My opinion is that the children should stay with the foster parents and be allowed to be adopted by them."
In court papers, the guardian for the children has described them as "happy, healthy, well-adjusted, well-groomed, polite kids."
The youngest child was an infant when the state placed him and his half-brother with Gil and his partner four years ago.
While the challenge to Florida's gay adoption ban, playing out in the Miami-Dade Juvenile Justice Center, could set precedent, Gil says he is not motivated by activism or politics.
"I think it would be absolutely devastating for them to leave the only home that my little one has ever had," Gil told CBS4's Nelson.
"And my oldest child has had bonds that have been ripped apart before," he added. "I would hate to see the devestation of that having to happen again."
Gays and lesbians hoping to adopt in florida may have drawn a favorable judge in this case. Judge Cindy Lederman has been a frequent and passionate critic of Florida's child welfare system. The trial before Lederman is expected to last about a week.
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