MEDIA ADVISORY
November 24, 2008
Contact:
Brandon Hensler, (786) 363-2737
Paul Cates, (212) 549-2568
Cell, (917) 566-1294
What:
A Florida juvenile court judge will issue a decision in the case of Martin Gill, a gay man from the state who has asked the court to declare unconstitutional a Florida law barring gay people from adopting and allow him to adopt two foster children he has been raising for the past four years with his partner.
Who:
Martin Gill, a gay man from North Miami who has asked to be able to adopt two foster children he has been raising for the past four years; his lawyers, Robert Rosenwald, Director of the LGBT Advocacy Project of the ACLU of Florida, and Leslie Cooper, a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project; and lawyers representing the foster children, Hillarie Bass, of Greenberg Traurig, and Charles Auslander, an attorney and former District Administrator for Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF).
Where:
Front steps
Juvenile Justice Center
3300 NW 27th Ave.
Miami, Florida 33142
When:
TUESDAY, November 25th, immediately following the court’s decision, which is scheduled to be issued at 9:00 AM.
The court proceedings have been made public to reporters and the public, the ACLU news conference with Martin Gill will take place immediately following the proceedings on the Juvenile Justice Center front steps. Please note that since the case involves the adoption of minor children, their names cannot be used.
Why:
Florida has the broadest anti-gay parenting law in the nation, banning all lesbians and gay men from adopting. This law flies in the face of the recommendations of all the children’s health and welfare organizations – who recognized that gay people make equally good parents – because it reduces the limited pool of potential parents willing to provide permanent homes to children in need. All potential adoptive families are already thoroughly screened before being allowed to adopt.
During discovery for the trial, DCF admitted that the shortage of adoptive parents is a serious problem. At any given time there are approximately 900 to 1000 children who need adoptive parents to be recruited to adopt them. Every year, many children age out of the system without ever being adopted.
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