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Supporters of Florida’s gay adoption ban sure are grasping at straws trying to find evidence to justify the backward law.
Last November, Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman overturned the law. During the original trial, the state relied on the so-called science of two discredited, Bible-thumping researchers whose opinions and findings stand in stark contrast to the rest of the available research on gay parenting.
Now the case has come to the Third District Court of Appeals in Miami, and the state case is still weak.
Deputy Solicitor General Timothy Osterhaus claims homosexuals as a group can be banned from adopting because of higher rates of domestic violence, psychiatric disorders, and breakups, according to Law.com.
But interestingly, he thinks there’s nothing wrong with the family at the center of the case.
The state five years ago placed two half-brothers in the care of foster father Frank Martin Gil, an openly gay man, and by all accounts, the boys have thrived and wish to stay with their dad.
Even Osterhaus said, “The state doesn’t contest that this is in the best interest of the children.”
The attorney representing Gil said there’s no disparity in domestic violence between gay and straight couples, and says the break-up rate between gay and straight couples with children is virtually identical.
Which leaves only mental illness. The state already screens potential adoptive parents for mental illness and allows people with criminal histories, past drug use, and disabilities to adopt.
[Law.com: In Fla. Adoption Case, State Argues Gays Prone to Mental Illness, Breakups][Earlier: State Uses Bad Science To Back Its Bad Gay Adoption Ban]
