UPDATE: Ban ruled unconstitutional.
This morning, a Miami-Dade child welfare judge is expected to rule on the constitutionality of Florida's law banning gay adoption.
“Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman heard testimony from Oct. 1-6 over Frank Gill's petition to adopt the two foster children he has cared for since 2004. Florida child welfare administrators testified they would have approved the adoption but for Florida's ban, the only such state law still on the books. Though Florida law does not allow gay people to adopt, they are allowed to be foster parents, and many gay people have fostered children for years. Much of the testimony centered on conflicting interpretations of decades-worth of academic research on whether gay people can parent as successfully as straight people.”
The case began in closed court at the beginning of October and followed a decision by a Circuit Court judge declaring the state's law unconstitutional in order to allow a gay Key West foster parent to adopt the son he and his partner had been caring for for seven years.
Lederman's ruling is expected to be appealed immediately and experts say it will go all the way to the Florida Supreme Court.
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(image miami herald)
