Aug 26, 2009 8:13 pm US/Eastern
State's Gay Adoption Ban Goes To Appeals Court
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Foster parent Martin Gill is taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary, in order to keep his children.
"I will be absolutely devastated if they would be taken away, but it would be worse for them" said Gill. In the past seven years, Gill and his partner have fostered eight children.
Gill and his partner have been fostering two boys for more than four years; after living as a family, they chose adopt but there was one problem: in Florida, there is a ban on gay adoption. "I know for my kids I am the best father; that's because me and my partner can provide them with the continuity only we can provide," said Gill.
Last November in a landmark move, a Miami-Dade judge ruled the state law which bans gay adoptions unconstitutional in the North Miami man's case, who along with his partner fought to adopt those two children. They won the case and the judge's ruling overturned the 31-year-old law that banned gay adoptions.
Now the state is appealing the ruling, saying the judge legislated from the bench and that state lawmakers should decide the matter. Attorneys for Gill and the children argued Wednesday in Miami that there's no rational basis to exclude gay people.
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing Gill, calls Florida's gay adoption ban the broadest such law in the nation. DCF says this is nothing personal against Gill and his partner but that the law is the law.
"This case and for the department, it is about the law, the fact that we are obligated to enforce unless the law is changed, and for that we have to take it through due process," said Flora Beal with DCF.
It will likely be months before the appeals court issues a ruling, which could then be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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