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Landmark ACLU Case Challenging Florida's Gay Adoption Ban Reaches
Federal Appeals Court
February 14, 2002
MIAMI ? For the first time ever, a federal appeals court is weighing the constitutionality of banning gay adoption, in the American Civil Liberties Union's case against Florida's law prohibiting all gay people from adopting children.
"Here in Florida, there are 3,400 children in foster care who could be placed in stable and loving adoptive homes right now if qualified parents came forward," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. "These children are bounced from one foster care placement to another while Florida politicians use the child welfare system to make a political statement about lesbians and gay men."
In a 43-page brief filed today at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, the ACLU asked the appeals court to reverse the decision of a U.S. District Court Judge James Lawrence King, who dismissed the case before it could reach a trial. The state has 30 days to file a response, and oral arguments in the case will be scheduled for later this year.
The ACLU initially filed its federal lawsuit in 1998 challenging the Florida law ? marking the first time a federal court was asked the fundamental question of whether a state can categorically block gay people from being parents.
The ACLU represents three families in the case. Doug Houghton, a registered nurse in an intensive care unit at a Miami hospital, has raised a 10-year-old boy for six years but cannot adopt him because of Florida's law. The same court that dismissed the lawsuit last year said that Houghton and the boy are just as close as biological parents and their children.
Wayne Smith and Dan Skahen of Key West provide foster care to various children as needed, but also cannot adopt any children because of Florida's law. Steven Lofton, a pediatric nurse, and his partner Roger Croteau, who live in Oregon, are raising five children, including three Florida foster children. Although the children ? ages 14, 10 and 14 ? have never known another family, they cannot be adopted by Lofton or Croteau because of Florida's law.
The ban on gay adoption was passed by the Florida legislature in 1977, in the midst of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade. The bill's sponsor in the State Senate told a local newspaper at the time that the new law was intended to send this message to lesbians and gay men: "[w]e are really tired of you. We wish you'd go back in the closet."
In sworn depositions for the case, Florida's leading official overseeing adoption policy was asked, "Do you know of any child welfare reason at all for excluding gay people from adopting children?" The official, Carol Hutchison, answered, "No." She was then asked if she believes children's best interests would be served if lesbians and gay men were allowed to adopt. "As I previously stated, I think it's contraindicated to rule out such a large population of people who quite possibly could meet the needs [of] awaiting children," she said.
The ACLU told the appeals court today that it is unconstitutional for the state to have a law with no basis other than expressing disapproval toward gay people. "There's no question that is what Florida is doing ? and it's exactly what the Constitution prohibits," said Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida Randall Marshall, who is serving as co-counsel in this lawsuit along with Leslie Cooper of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
Today's court filing includes information detailing the potential jeopardy Florida's law poses for some existing families. On June 21, 2001, according to the legal papers filed today, Florida officials told Lofton they were looking for another family to adopt his nearly-11-year-old boy. When the ACLU asked for assurances that the boy wouldn't be removed from his family until the case is over, "the state refused, saying only that [the boy] would not be taken away until the state found someone else to adopt him," the ACLU brief says.
In an affidavit excerpted in today's brief, Lofton makes clear his relationship with the boy: "I have been his parent in every way. For example, every day I wake him up in the morning and help him get dressed and ready to go to school; I help him with his homework when he comes home from school; we have a family dinner every night, cooked by Roger ... I make sure he is safe. He calls me 'Dad.' ... I love [him] deeply and want to protect him. But I cannot protect him unless I can adopt him."
ACLU Contact:
Alessandra Soler,Communications
Director
ACLU of Florida
(305) 576-2337, ext. 16.
