The good news is that a 13 year old with learning disabilities who told the court that he wanted the man who has been raising him for the past five years to be his "forever father" like what all the other kids get, will get his wish.
Trial judge David J Audlin Jr. responded to testimony from the family and social workers saying that adoption of the boy by his foster father would be in his best interests, and issued an order allowing the adoption. The foster father and his partner have been parenting the boy since 2000. The adoption order has not been challenged.
Along the way, Audlin also declared Florida's ban on gay adoptions unsupportable in no uncertain terms, saying that "Floridians who are gay
or lesbian are not for that reason inherently incapable of parenting an
adopted child," arguing that he found no "non-punitive" reason for the ban, and adding that it violated the rights of child welfare agencies to make independent determinations about the fitness of parents.
Unfortunately for those of us who lit up at headlines like "Florida's gay adoption ban ruled unconstitutional," the strong and beautifully worded decision by Audlin doesn't really carry any weight outside of this particular case. As a trial ruling that hasn't been appealed, apparently it doesn't count as precedent and is unlikely to overturn the ban, which was upheld by higher courts only a few years ago
Still, advocates for gays basic decency and child welfare are hopeful that along with some other similar cases in progress right now, this ruling could start to chip away at the ban's foundation and eventually make it easier to overturn.
And is it just me, or does it say something really skeevy about how little Florida values children who end up in foster care if they truly think that it would be horrible for gays to adopt, but it's just fine for us to care for children at their most vulnerable and traumatized?
Photo by mike (el madrileño).
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