Embattled Ball won't back down
Despite backlash to his views, Ball remains unabashed
By Alisa LaPolt
Gannett News Service
TALLAHASSEE -- Rep. Randy Ball enraged thousands of people across the country with his nationally televised comments denouncing gay adoptions, but the outspoken critic isn't flinching from the fallout.
 Rep. Randy Ball, R-Mims |
In fact, Ball -- who acknowledged members of his own family are gay -- delved even further into the emotional debate with an automated, e-mail response to thousands of already angry letter writers:
"Placing a child into a homosexual household is like placing a child into a whirlwind of sexual partners, disease and depression," the Titusville Republican wrote in email from his Capitol legislative office.
One person made the attack personal, taking stabs at Ball's religion: "This response is even more ignorant (than) your appearance on TV ... I thank God every day that I'm not an ignorant, stupid Baptist and after hearing and reading your response, I see that God has granted me my prayers."
Several gay advocates and adoptive parenting groups were already taking issue with Ball's comments on Primetime and The O'Reilly Factor in support of Florida's ban on gay parent adoptions.
He said heterosexuals make better parents than homosexual parents. In one interview, Ball cited research that shows daughters of lesbian parents are eight times more likely to become homosexuals themselves. Groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics question the findings.
"Why is that bad?" Ball writes in his automated e-mail response. "Because the homosexual lifestyle is a destructive one."
One Nebraska mother, whose partner is from Orlando, fired back a response that said her household contains no such whirlwind.
"We live a regular, everyday life with everyday problems -- getting the dog walked, taking the trash out -- did we forget to buy diapers?" wrote Donna Colley, who is raising a 4-month-old son with her partner. She added: "Someone needs to have a very long talk with this guy and bring him into reality."
Ball, however, acknowledged that members of his own family are gay, but declined to elaborate in order to protect their privacy.
"Let's leave it at that," he said.
Ball relies on research and the Bible for his views, which he contends have not created problems among his family members.
"We get along well -- it hasn't caused a rift," he said. "I don't expect to be put in a tough position."
Since the TV programs' airings, some 90,322 organized, chain-letter type e-mail and another 2,899 from individuals have swamped the offices of Gov. Jeb Bush and the Department of Children and Families as of Wednesday. Most are from outside Florida, press offices noted.
Ball has received some 1,000 of them.
"You are a hate monger and a bigot," wrote one Florida resident. "You scare me. It is people like you who think it is OK to beat a child to death ... and to turn a blind eye while these and worse things are happening at the hands of heterosexual parents."
"I'm totally unabashed by it," he shrugged.
He stopped the automatic e-mail responses Monday, he said.
High-profile debate
Last week's Primetime television program focused on two gay Florida men who took in five HIV-infected children, including two they adopted in Oregon. Florida social workers are trying to take away one of the foster children placed with the couple in the Sunshine State.
The parents, Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union that seeks to overturn Florida's gay adoption ban.
Florida law allows homosexuals to be foster parents, but not adoptive parents.
It's highly unlikely the Republican-led Legislature would entertain the idea of abolishing the law. Even so, their 2002 legislative session is winding to a close.
In 1977, the Florida Legislature passed the ban into law, with support drummed up by former beauty queen Anita Bryant.
Now, another notable personality -- comedienne Rosie O'Donnell -- has launched a high-profile campaign promoting gay adoptions. Adopting three children herself, O'Donnell appeared on Primetime, publicly revealing that she is a lesbian.
"We all have the same struggles that other communities have," said Aimee Gelnaw, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.
"Parents in our community do not become parents by accident -- there is tremendous intention," Gelnaw said.
Religious man
Among his colleagues, the 45-year old Ball is considered an honest, mild-mannered, strong leader who only speaks ill of the criminals -- especially sex offenders -- he once investigated when he was a detective.
"You may not like what he tells you, but he doesn't beat around the bush," Cocoa lobbyist Guy Spearman said. "He's so honest, and you don't see that a lot around here."
Ball is the son of a former Titusville police chief and was a sheriff's deputy and detective. He and his wife have four children.
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served as a Marine Corps officer and has volunteered as a Little League umpire and an emergency medical technician.
And he's deeply religious. He earned a master's degree in religion from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.
In his e-mail responses, Ball wrote that no one who is "motivated by the love that the Lord Jesus Christ commands of us" would place a child into such a dangerous environment.
Family advocates
During his eight-year legislative career, Ball won favor from pro-family advocates when he sponsored legislation that bans abortion procedures known as "partial-birth abortions."
Former Gov. Lawton Chiles vetoed the measure, but Ball and his colleagues overturned the governor's decision, the first such move in more than a decade. Courts have since struck down the measure as unconstitutional.
Now, the Family Pride Coalition is among the groups taking issue with Ball's position on same-sex adoptions.
"What children need is a loving, caring stable environment," said Gelnaw said.
He chairs the House Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee and co-chairs the House Redistricting Committee. Ball hopes to run for Congress if, he said, redistricting maps don't pit him in the same district where House Speaker Tom Feeney also wants to run.
In a farewell speech on the House floor earlier this week, Ball -- who cannot seek re-election because of term limits -- offered his colleagues some advice.
"This is a process where ideas clash, and that's OK," he said. "And if someone comes after you personally, you don't want to descend the stair steps of character to be like them."