Florida lawmaker files bills that would legalize gay adoptions

[babylonsister]

Florida lawmaker files bills that would legalize gay adoptions


Frank Gill reads a book with a foster kid he is hoping to adopt.

CARL JUSTE/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]


As gay rights advocates and religious groups queue up in an effort to influence the outcome of a Miami appeals court case that will help decide whether gay people can adopt children in Florida, a state lawmaker has quietly introduced two bills that could render the dispute moot.

State Sen. Nan Rich, a Weston Democrat who is co-chair of the Senate Children & Families Committee, has filed a bill to repeal the 1977 Florida law that prohibits gay men and lesbians from adopting children. A second bill would specify that judges would determine adoptions based solely on ''the best interests'' of children.

''Someone who is a good parent -- whether they are heterosexual or homosexual -- that's what we should be basing decisions on, not sexual orientation,'' Rich said. ``We need to be looking at what's in the best interests of children.''

Florida's adoption law has been stirring controversy since last summer, when a Monroe County judge, David John Audlin Jr., declared the law unconstitutional, allowing a Key West lawyer and his longtime partner to adopt a boy they had raised in foster care for several years.

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