Adopting Common Sense

A judge last week overturned a Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children, saying there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state's arguments that there is "a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children." She noted that gay people are allowed to be foster parents in Florida. "There is no rational basis to prohibit gay parents from adopting," she wrote in a 53-page ruling.

Florida is the only state with an outright ban on gay adoption. Arkansas voters last month approved a measure similar to a law in Utah that bans any unmarried straight or gay couples from adopting or fostering children. Mississippi bans gay couples, but not single gays, from adopting.

Note from the Daily Dude: In the article, a conservative activist invokes the time-worn but inaccurate term "judicial activism". I find it ironic when the religious right use the term "judicial activism" when referring to courts who rule in favor of constitutional rights, but at the same time want courts to overrule Supreme Court precedent and ban abortion.