Judge Nixes Fla. Ban on Gay Adoption

A Miami circuit judge sparked a constitutional showdown by ruling today against Florida’s 30-year-old ban on gay adoption, rebutting claims that homosexuals suffer more from mental illness and substance abuse. The attorney general’s office plans to appeal the decision, which allows a Miami man to adopt two foster kids he and his partner have been raising since 2004, the Herald reports.

In today’s ruling, Judge Cindy Lederman scoured decades of psychological research to show sexual orientation is “not a predictor of a person's ability to parent.” And with Florida suffering a shortage of foster and adoptive families, “there is no question the blanket exclusion of gay applicants defeats Florida's goal of providing children a permanent family through adoption,” Lederman wrote. (More Florida stories.)