Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...LGBT protest at Fla. Capitol
03.17.2009 9:28am EDT
(Tallahassee, Florida) More than 1000 people demonstrated at the Florida Capitol on Monday, demanding the legislature repeal a law that bans gay adoption and pass bills extending LGBT civil rights.
Two pieces of legislation were introduced in January to amend Florida’s adoption laws – one would allow gays to adopt, the other would leave it to judges to determine where to place children where both parents are dead. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say neither has a chance of passing this year.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.
One of the speakers at Monday’s rally was Martin Gill, who was allowed in a court ruling to adopt two young brothers he has cared for as foster children since 2004.
In her ruling allowing the adoption, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled there is “no rational basis” for prohibiting gays from adopting children.
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 will 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.
The case has been appealed by the state.
Another speaker at the rally was Stuart Milk, the nephew of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, Harvey Milk who called for passage of laws covering employment, housing and public accommodations to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Currently, the Florida Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status
Florida’s Fair Housing Act currently protects against discrimination in housing and public accommodations based on race, color, national origin, sex, handicap, familial status, or religion.
Legislation was introduced this year by Rep. Kelly Skidmore (D-Boca Raton). Last year 31 of Skidmore’s House colleagues signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. Despite the support, the bill did not receive a hearing.
Speakers at the rally also called for domestic partnership law in Florida.
Please!….Florida is ruled by “blue hairs” and “the Dukes of Hazard” and little else! Don’t expect too much to change in the homestate of Anita Bryant. Even in relatively “liberal” Gainesville, the anti-discrimination laws are being repealed because of rampant ignorance and lies. Much is wrong in the “Sunshine State” and won’t be fixed without a “mass extinction” of the current state legislature and the fools voting them into office. Good Luck, and lets take our vacation $$$ elsewhere until this travesty is corrected.
Gary Said: “Please!….Florida is ruled by “blue hairs” and “the Dukes of Hazard” and little else!”
Don’t forget the millions of transplants from the “liberal north” who bring their prejudices with them along with their Hawaiian shirts.
I for one refuse to go to Fla. and spend my money…as a matter of fact – most of America is OFF Limits when it comes to my Gay dollars.
Fight that fight elsewhere. I can’t wait to leave the hell hole of Arkansas for gay friendlier pastures. Spend your pink $$ in places that truly value you.