Florida Gays Still Cannot Adopt

Let's start off with the news story, then some comments:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear a constitutional challenge to a 1977 Florida law that bans gays and lesbians from adopting children, the only such state law in the nation.

Without comment, the high court declined to consider whether the law, which was adopted at the height of entertainer Anita Bryant's anti-homosexual campaign, unfairly singled out gays and lesbians in violation of their constitutional rights.

The law states, "No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual." No other state categorically excludes gays or lesbians from adopting.

The law's sponsor, Florida Sen. Curtis Peterson, said at the time the purpose of the legislation was to send a message to gays and lesbians that "we're really tired of you. We wish you'd go back into the closet." Supreme Court Lets Stand Florida's Gay Adoption Ban

You'd think these "family values" folks would want to see orphans taken into families, where they could be cared for and loved, wouldn't you? I mean, wouldn't that be consistent with the concept of ... well ... family values? No, here again they reveal their agenda to be a hateful one. They would rather leave a kid in an orphanage or a foster home than place him or her in a family with gay people.

Yeah, they've backed themselves into a corner here, it seems, by insisting that a "family" has to have a man and a woman. Who would think it was a good idea to just come out and say: orphans belong in orphanages, not homes? But that's the effect here.

You wonder, is it legal in Florida for a single parent to adopt a kid? People who have been divorced? Adulterers? Drinkers? What if you have a criminal record? And how do they know if you're gay? Do you have to, like, "perform" to prove it?

The Florida law was challenged in 1999 by four gay men, Steven Lofton, Douglas Houghton, Wayne LaRue Smith and Daniel Skahen, who have been raising foster children, but cannot adopt them because of the law.

The lawsuit claimed the law violated the right to equal protection of lesbians and gays who seek to adopt and of the children raised by gays and lesbians who cannot be adopted by those caring for them.

A federal judge in Miami and a U.S. appeals court upheld the law. The Atlanta-based appeals court said the issue of gay adoptions should be decided by the Florida legislature, not by the courts.

This story is actually just about a legal technicality, a jurisdictional issue. But it makes you wonder, what kind of people are so hateful that they would rather see a kid grow up in an orphange, or passed around between foster homes, than adopted into a loving home with two moms, or two dads?