Home » About » Newsletters » April 2003
"ACLU Argues Case Against Florida's Gay Adoption Ban"
April 2003 Edition of the ACLU of Florida Newsletter
By Alessandra Soler Meetze
Communications Director/Editor
For nearly 45 minutes on a balmy spring morning in Miami, 11-year-old Oscar sat in a crowded downtown courtroom, listening to attorneys argue over the rationale behind a state law that prevents his legal guardian from becoming his father in the eyes of the State of Florida.
Doug Houghton, Oscar's guardian for the past eight years, cannot become an adoptive father because he is gay. The state claims Oscar would be better off living with an adoptive heterosexual couple, even though Houghton has raised the boy since he was three years old.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its National Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, are challenging a state law that bans gays and lesbians from becoming adoptive parents. The case was filed in 1998 on behalf of Houghton and three other gay men ? all of whom have been foster parents for years. Plaintiff Steve Lofton and his partner Roger Croteau of Portland, Oregon are raising five foster children ages 6 to 15. Wayne LaRue Smith and Daniel Skahen of Key West have raised 15 foster children in the past four years.
They all were among the audience members who attended the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals hearing on March 4 in the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building in Miami. Ironically, the hearing was held in the courtroom named after the lower court judge who dismissed the case without allowing it to go to trial, saying the law was a "legitimate expression of public morality." When U.S. District Court Judge James King dismissed the case in 2001, there were more than 3,400 children languishing in Florida's foster care system waiting to be adopted. The ACLU appealed the lower court ruling shortly after it was issued.
At the federal appeals court hearing, Matt Coles, Director of the National ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, urged members of the three-judge panel to overturn the discriminatory Florida law, arguing no one could rationally think that banning lesbians and gay men from the pool of prospective adoptive parents would increase the number of children adopted by a married mother and father.
"We are asking the federal courts to protect both the children of Florida who need loving, stable homes and their qualified parents from the irrational prejudices of our state legislators ? prejudices that were placed in the law a generation ago," said Howard L. Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida.
Passed in the midst of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade, the law banning gay adoptions dates back to June 1, 1977 when it was overwhelmingly approved by the state legislature. Three days later, the governor signed it into law.
In addition to Coles, the plaintiffs also are represented by Randall Marshall, ACLU of Florida Legal Director, Leslie Cooper, ACLU staff attorney, Christina Zawisza, Children First, and ACLU cooperating attorneys Steven Kozlowski and Elizabeth Schwartz. A decision is not expected until later this year.
