There’s a little more sunshine in the Sunshine State today. The Florida Senate yesterday blocked an effort by the state House that would have allowed any private adoption agency to discriminate based on prospective parents’ sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as family status and religious or political beliefs.
Yesterday, the Senate blocked a discriminatory amendment to an adoption bill in its chamber. This Senate adoption bill, CS/HB 7013, which already passed the House without any such amendments, would (among other things) officially remove Florida’s 1977 anti-gay adoption statute from the books—long overdue, since that statute was declared unconstitutional in 2010. It has one more reading in the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
At the same time, however, the House yesterday voted on amendments to a separate bill, HB 7111, which would allow discrimination in adoption. The full bill is expected to pass today.
Here’s the thing. As of this moment, there is no companion bill in the Senate to HB 7111 (CS/HB 7013 deals with other adoption issues), so the House bill, even if passed, will not become law.
This isn’t all final yet, however. It’s possible something could be introduced at the last minute that could still shift matters. if you live in Florida and want to urge your representative not to vote for discrimination, here’s how to contact them.
LGB individuals or same-sex couples in the state are raising approximately 2,460 adopted children and 160 foster children, according to UCLA’s Williams Institute, which also notes, “If those 160 foster children were to be adopted by their foster families next year, the state could save more than $1 million by not keeping them in the foster care system.”
One of the heroes of the story is former Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Destin), who spoke strongly against the amendment, noting that the Department of Children and Families has testified that they have knowingly placed foster and adoptive parents with same-sex couples and “there are no negative consequences.”
He continued:
I don’t think it would be right for this Senate to take the position that we believe, as some believed in 1977 [when Florida first banned gay men and lesbians from adopting], that there was something wrong with a child having a chance to have a loving home, even if the people in that loving home didn’t have the kind of traditional family values that we have. I don’t think that’s right. It wasn’t too many years ago when interracial adoptions were illegal, and frowned on, and immoral. It was quite recently when a university in this country had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to get told that their policy that expelled students because they had interracial dating allowed…. We don’t need to turn back the social clock in this state to 1977.
Watch Gaetz’ full speech below—but don’t forget one of the other heroes: 10-year-old Nathaniel Gill, son of Martin Gill, the plaintiff who overturned Florida’s ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians in 2010.