Ok, then:
Gay Couple Challenges Florida Ban on Homosexual Adoptions - New York Times
"Gay people are the only group categorically restricted from adopting children in Florida. Even people who have abused drugs and alcohol or people who have a history of domestic violence may adopt under some circumstances.
State courts have upheld the law, with a state appeals court ruling in 1993 that the ban could be justified because homosexual parents are unlikely to be able to give heterosexual children sound dating advice.
The Supreme Court has said that states are required only to offer plausible rationales for laws that single out homosexuals. Florida officials have offered two.
Judge James Lawrence King of Federal District Court in Miami rejected the first, that the law was a ''legitimate expression of public morality as it bears on the questions of what environments are best for children, and what groups of people are entitled to recognition as families.''
''The court,'' he wrote, ''cannot accept that moral disapproval of homosexuals or homosexuality serves a legitimate state interest.''
But he accepted the second reason, that children are better off with married heterosexual couples.
Children, the state's lawyers wrote, should be ''raised in homes with married mothers and fathers due to the stability provided by marriage and the contribution of male and female influences to childhood growth and development, including heterosexual modeling.''
Studies on gay parenting which dispute the second reason:
CONCLUSION, Lesbian and Gay Parenting
"In summary, there is no evidence to suggest that lesbian women or gay men are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of lesbian women or gay men is compromised relative to that among offspring of heterosexual parents. Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents. Indeed, the evidence to date suggests that home environments provided by lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children's psychosocial growth."
U.S. study backs allowing gays to adopt -- Queer Lesbian Gay News -- Gay.com
U.S. study backs allowing gays to adopt
published Friday, March 24, 2006
Children adopted by gays and lesbians fare no better or worse than those raised by heterosexual adults, and barriers preventing gay parents from adopting should be removed, said a report released Friday by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, entitled "Expanding Resources for Children."
"Based on both the available research and growing experience," the report concludes, "adoption by gays and lesbians holds promise as an avenue for achieving permanency for many of the waiting children in foster care."
The report is part of an extensive yearlong project intended to provide a research-based context for the ongoing debate over adoption of children by gays and lesbians. Report findings include:
* Children reared by gay and lesbian parents fare comparably to those raised by heterosexuals on a range of measures of social and psychological adjustment.
* Tens of thousands of children in the foster care system are disadvantaged by laws that bar gays and lesbians from adopting them. "
A bit of history: note the terminology used here, which is used today, too.
Anita Bryant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1977, Dade County, Florida (now Miami-Dade County) passed a human-rights ordinance sponsored by Bryant's former good friend Ruth Shack, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Anita Bryant led a highly publicized campaign to repeal the ordinance. The campaign was waged based on what was labeled "Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation."
Her view was that "What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. [...] I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before." The campaign was called 'Save Our Children', the start of an organized opposition to gay rights that spread across the nation. Jerry Falwell went to Miami to help her.
Bryant made the following statements during the campaign: "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters."
On June 7, 1977, Bryant's campaign led to a repeal of the anti-discrimination ordinance by a margin of 69 to 31 percent. [....] In 1998 Dade County repudiated Bryant's successful campaign of 20 years earlier, and re-authorized an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by a 7 to 6 margin. In 2002, a ballot initiative to repeal the 1998 law called Amendment 14 was voted down by 56% of the voters. The Florida statute forbidding adoptions by gay persons, however, remains law; in 2004, a federal appellate court upheld Florida’s adoption law against a constitutional challenge."
Yes, Mike, I would say it is discrimination.
Last edited:
But I don't mind at all where you get your principles from - I'm just not that good at watching people try and foist them on to others.
. I have a few female friends that are mechanical engineers and they have a pretty tough time sometimes in such a male dominated industry. Sure, it is not the same for all female engineers but I was just trying to show Mike that there are people out there that have a completely different experience to him in the same industry.
