The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Editor's Note: The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The time has come for the Florida Legislature to provide a fair hearing on the ban on adoption by gay parents. Put quite simply, Florida's adoption ban hurts children. It is time to put children's needs ahead of anti-gay bigotry and allow prospective parents to be considered based on their ability to serve the child's interest by providing a permanent, stable and loving home.

The courts have already begun to recognize that Florida's ban on adoption hurts our children and our families, as most recently evidenced by a decision granting adoption of two foster children to a gay man in North Miami who was the only family they had known. What is most telling is that the majority of Floridians believe that the adoption ban should be repealed, allowing judges to grant adoptions to gay and lesbian parents just like they do for straight parents. But the court of public opinion doesn't have to wait for the wheels of justice; the Florida Legislature can end this senseless ban that hurts our children during this legislative session.

Click here to urge the Speaker of the House to promptly schedule a hearing.

Click here to ask the Senate committee to promptly schedule a hearing date on Senate Bill 500.

There are a multitude of reasons why Florida's ban on adoption by gay people needs to be repealed:

• Florida's ban on adoption by gay people hurts children.
• Every major child welfare organization is opposed to laws that ban gay people from adopting. Organizations opposed to such broad categorical exclusions include the Child Welfare League of America, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and the North American Council on Adoptable Children.
• Each case is unique and those closest to the child and those with the most knowledge about the specifics of each case should be allowed to decide what is best, not politicians making a political statement against gay people.
• It is bad public policy to limit the number of potential adoptive parents by banning broad categories of people. The best way to protect children in to put all potential adoptive parents through a strenuous review process.
• A number of legislators who helped pass the ban on adoption by gay people almost 30 years ago now say THEY WERE WRONG.
• It is time to schedule a fair hearing. Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Florida legislature to allow gays to be considered as potential adoptive parents.

Click here to urge the Speaker of the House to promptly schedule a hearing.

Click here to ask the Senate committee to promptly schedule a hearing date on Senate Bill 500.

Thank you for taking action on this important issue!