(Tallahassee, Florida) The Florida Attorney General’s office is preparing to appeal a ruling by a Miami judge striking down the state ban on adoptions by gays and lesbians.

Florida Assistant  Attorney General Valerie Martin said the appeal would be filed on behalf of the state Department of Children & Families. Martin declined additional comment but it is widely believed the appeal will be filed before the end of the year.

No matter which way the appeals court rules, it is expected the case will end up in the Florida Supreme Court.

Florida law allows gays to serve as foster parents but not adopt. The law is considered the most repressive of its kind in the country. Some states bar same-sex couples from jointly adopting. Arkansas voters last month approved a measure blocking all unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children but does not specifically name gays. There is a similar law in Utah. Only Florida bars gays, single or coupled, from adopting.

Last month, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled there is “no rational basis” for prohibiting gays from adopting children.

The case involved 47-year-old Martin Gill, who wished to adopt two young brothers he has cared for as foster children since 2004.

The boys had been placed with Gill after he was approached for help by a state child abuse investigator.

The placement was supposed to be temporary, but three years later, the boys and Gill had become a family, and Gill wanted to ensure the children would not be removed at some point from his care.

Gill and lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union asked Lederman to overturn the ban on gay adoption and award him permanent custody.

An attorney appointed by Lederman to represent the children said in a report to the court that the children refer Gill and his partner as “dad” and that Gill should be granted the adoption.

The Florida Department of Children & Families and the state attorney general’s office argued the ban should be maintained. The position has the support of Gov. Charlie Crist (R) who said he has no plans to have the law repealed.

“They’re a good family,” Lederman said in her ruling. “They’re a family in every way except in the eyes of the law. These children have a right to permanency.”

“The only real permanency is adoption in the home where they are thriving,” she said. “There is no rational basis to preclude homosexuals from adopting.”

In September, another South Florida judge ruled against the law in a separate case.

The group behind the successful bid last month to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage in Florida said it would seek intervenor status in the case calling Lederman’s ruling “classic judicial activism.”