Florida Court Confirms: Gay Adoption Ban Unconstitutional

Florida remains the only US state with a constitutional ban on gay adoption - a ban which is starting to meet substantial political resistance. The political support for the ban is becoming irrelevant, as a series of court decisions have confirmed: anti-gay discrimination is unconstitutional. Two California judges in recent months have found that bans on gay marriage and gay military service are discriminatory and so unconstitutional. This ruling from Florida confirms the pattern: discrimination is not acceptable.

Frank Martin Gill & Partner: Approved Gay Parents

The context for this decision is that four separate lower courts have already approved adoption by suitable gay parents in specific cases, and ruled in each case that the ban is unconstitutional. The present case is the first of the four to have reached the appeals process, in the Miami-Dade Appeals District. If the state appeals the present ruling, the case will reach the state Supreme Court - which is likely to find, as an ever-increasing sequence of courts have done, that discrimination is simply contrary to the American constitution.

This is from Just News:

An appeals court in Miami-Dade County has ruled that Florida's ban on gay adoption unconstitutional.

The Third District Court of Appeal in west Miami-Dade issued the unanimous 3-0 opinion Wednesday morning.

The ruling stems from a case involving a North Miami gay man, Frank Martin Gill, and his partner, who sued to adopt two boys whom they took in as foster children in 2004.

Last year, a trial court judge sided with Gill and his partner, saying the law was unconstitutional. The state challenged the ruling, but now the appeals court has sided with the lower court's decision, saying the law was unconstitutional.

If the state challenges the ruling, the case could end up before the state Supreme Court.

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