Florida judge rules state ban on gay adoption unconstitutional

[ck4829]

A Monroe Circuit Court judge has ruled Florida's 31-year-old gay adoption ban unconstitutional in an order that allows an openly gay Key West foster parent to adopt a teenage boy he has raised since 2001.

Declaring the adoption to be in the boy's "best interest", circuit judge David J Audlin Jr, said the Florida law forbidding gays and lesbians from adopting children is contrary to the state constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

Florida is one of only two states - including Mississippi - that forbid gay people from adopting children.

Though the statute has been found unconstitutional by circuit judges in Florida twice before, both in 1991, another adoption case expected to be heard next month in a Miami courtroom may also provide a new challenge to the law.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/10/usa.gayrights