Posted on 03/07/2005 12:58:26 PM PST by longtermmemmory
Family section takes new tack to support gay adoptions The bill would not strike the ban, but would skirt the law for gay foster parents By Jan Pudlow Senior Editor The Florida Bar’s Family Law Section Executive Council has unanimously voted to support a bill that would allow gay foster parents to adopt if it is in the best interest of the child.
Family Law Section Chair Evan Marks said it is his “hope and prayer that the Board of Governors will recognize the insanity of not allowing people who are already fostering these children” to give them permanent homes. Marks said he believes this issue is much less potentially divisive than his original failed request to lobby for the repeal of the gay adoption ban.
“What inspired it is the sheer injustice of these good people who have given so much to these children and cannot adopt,” Marks said of the bill.
There is no mention of sexual orientation in HB 633, with bi-partisan support among its co-sponsors: Rep. Sheri McInvale, D-Orlando, and Rep. Faye Culp, R-Tampa.
But the first line of the bill says “notwithstanding §63.042" — referring to Florida’s law banning gay adoption. Marks worked with McInvale in his personal capacity as an individual lawyer to help craft the bill.
In December, with a 31-13 vote, Marks lost an impassioned request before the Board of Governors to allow the Family Law, Equal Opportunities Law, and Public Interest Law sections to lobby for the repeal of the state law banning homosexuals from adopting. The majority of governors were persuaded to reject Marks’ plea because of a Bar rule that says if an issue “carries the potential for deep philosophical or emotional division among a substantial segment of the membership,” the section cannot be allowed to lobby for it.
But Marks stresses HB 633 does not seek to repeal Florida’s ban on gay adoptions, and he is only asking the board for permission for the section to support a bill that has already been filed.
“Everyone agrees that the prejudicial, bigoted language of the statute (gay adoption ban) written as the result of the Anita Bryant days should not and could not stand. However, because of our political climate, there is a very small likelihood of success,” Marks said. “Nobody wants to touch it. Everybody recognizes the problem, and the first thing we can do is allow foster parents to adopt. While it doesn’t solve the problem, it is certainly a step in the right direction.”
Of 42,000 foster children in Florida, many are currently cared for by gay and lesbian couples who are doing a great job and are paid by the state, according to Marks.
“A lot of these children are not adoptable. They are too old. They have illnesses. Many are HIV positive. As a result, they are fortunate to be in foster care with foster parents who are good, qualified, and loving,” Marks said.
“However, these same foster parents can’t adopt, and that’s wrong.”
HB 633 says a foster parent who has cared for a child for 36 months or more is eligible to adopt, and should be given first consideration by the court, if the foster parent has developed a bond with the child, has an excellent record of foster parenting with the child, and it is in the best interest of the child, among other factors.
McInvale told the Tallahassee Democrat: “Our law says you’re a good enough foster parent to take a kid in state custody, but you’re not a good enough parent for an adoption. This is a wrong that needs to be righted, after the [U.S.] Supreme Court refused to hear the Florida case in a challenge to the state law, because all of the plaintiffs in that case were foster parents.”
Culp said she agreed to co-sponsor the bill because, “It’s still going to be up to a judge.”
In the Senate, Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, filed a bill that is similar — SB 1534 — but will not require foster children to live 36 months with the foster parent because bonding can occur sooner. Her bill, she said, provides a two-prong test for judges: Determining by clear and convincing evidence that the petitioning adults are the child’s “parental figures” and if adoption is better for the child than continuing in foster care.
Marks said he sees “a great, great potential for this law to pass and be signed into law.”
As chair of the Family Law Section, he wants permission from the Bar to lobby legislators.
“I truly believe that the Board of Governors is made up of well-meaning people who are hardworking, volunteering their time in an effort to make The Florida Bar a great place to be,” Marks said.
“I believe, on this issue, the lack of information and education allowed good people to fall back on the way they were raised and their emotional beliefs, which have prevented some of them from looking at the big picture. I do believe, in reflecting on this issue, that many of the people of the Board of Governors have had a change of heart. . . .This gives me a good feeling of hope. I feel inspired. I feel my efforts should be redoubled. I have to tell you that, on behalf of the section, I want to work within the Bar to use the prestige and honor of the Bar, to be bold enough and courageous enough to take a difficult position for the right thing.”
The Bar told the Family Law Section they many NOT advocate homosexual adoption but they continued to promote it on their section website in disregard of the Board of Governors. Both the Florida Supreme Court and the 11th Federal District court have upheld FL prohibition on homosexual adoptions.
If these lawyers want to advocate a PERSONAL sexual cause they they are free to do so without the use of the FL Bar name and appearance of sanction. Even though sections are voluntary and in theory the money is seperate, the sections still use the reputation and influence of "Florida Bar" as part of their promotions. The notion that a family law section member drafted this law in a myth of personal capacity, THEN as a section official pushed for homosexual adotions before the board only speaks as to how much this does not belong as part of the FL Bar function. The family law section should have IMMEDIATLY removed all homosexual adoption promotional lobbying materials from their website, they should have immediatly ceased trying to figure out ways to bypass the board of governors.
My fellow members here, please help diseminate this to as many as you can know to oppose this travesty. If you know of a lawyer who can write a letter or article to the Florida Bar news at Mark Killian (Florida Bar News ) mkillian@flabar.org. Even letters by non-lawyers should be considered. If you can provide non-religious based arguments why the FL Bar should not be involved in this sexual behavior politics, that would be the most helpful. They recieve so few letters, let your voices be heard.
These are the contacts to the Board of Governors:
Send an email to these and it should be distributed to all of the Board Members.
Paul Hill phill@flabar.org
Rebecca Burke rburke@flabar.org
All Others Board of Governor Issues:
Tina Ruffin mruffin@flabar.org
The President of the Florida Bar can be contacted at
President@flabar.org
Please any ping lists or chapters that may be able to help would be very welcome.
The bill is in the house committee here:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/bills_detail.aspx?Id=16171&sBillNumberText=633&iSessionSelectedIndex=0&iChamberSelectedIndex=2
If you are able to contact a Florida Representative and a Florida Senator Please do so.
Links are here
http://www.flsenate.gov/
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/
I will post the text of the bill bellow.
IT IS VERY VERY SNEAKY and INCIDIOUS!! They are trying to legalize homosexuals adopting children by using the deceptive trick of a bland nothwithstanding. That effort at trickery alone speaks volumes for the homosexual promoting this.
The fact a Republican would co-sponsor such obvious effort at deception is a disgrace. The homo-advocates do not believe anyone will pay attention and pass it because it does not say "homosexual" just a legalese reference to section 63.042.
In closing all constructive help to stop this is welcomed and requested.
Our wonderful Massachusetts Bar Association endorsed the state's same sex marriage court decision. Federalist Society, here I come!
Florida ping
Ping for Help
Could you please ping your lists for this please.
Help is needed because the homosexual adovcate lawyers are trying to slip homosexual adoption by deception.
PS: Any letters you could write to the Florida Bar would help too.
Unfortunatly for some of freepers, the state bar is mandatory. There is no going anywhere.
This issue should have died when the board of governors said NO.
Instead the family law section is practicing deception in order to legalize homosexual adoption at all costs.
The family law section STILL has pro-homosexual adoption lobbying materials on their website even after the Board of Governors told them to stop.
That's exactly what I thought while reading the article. How incredibly sneaky and cunning. They are trying to find a chink in the wall to slither through. When was it made okay for homosexuals to foster parent kids? I would have said then that it wouldn't stop with just that. I will certainly do the emailing and such, and hope it helps you. Please keep us updated on how it turns out.
Dee
pingy ping. Here is another one.
The majority of states do not allow second parent or limit second parent adoption. Second parent adoption is doublespeak for homosexual sex partner adoption. This arguably would open the door to that type of adoption too.
Many in the ABA want to make it legal for a homosexaul lover to adopt a child even if the parental rights of the non-homosexual mother or father have never been terminated and there is no problem with their parenting.
If you could take the time to perhaps write to the FL Bar President ( president@flabar.org ) or perhaps cc some of the others on the list all help would be apprecieated.
Even http://www.family.org may be a big gun we might be able to tap if enough or if anyone has an in to get this information to them.
The sheer sneakyness of this boggles the mind. If I was on the Board of Governors, I would be very very very pissed that this deception was taking place under the name of the bar.
They do not care about science. It is very sad, ESPECIALLY considering how screwed up the fostercare system has been.
They want to really screw those kids.
The outrage here is the fact that these lawyers were SPECIFICALLY told they may NOT lobby to change the law to allow homosexual adoption and they went and did it ANYWAYS.
Hi, could you ping your list on the chance someone from fox may be monitoring this? It is not exact Fox Fan related but if a Hanity can pick this up (not OReily) it would be helpful.
These lawyers are basically trying to usurp the FL Bar sanction despite the fact they were told to stop.
Let me first state that I am not convinced that homosexual adoption is in the best interest of the child.
That said, there is a certain logic to the argument that if gays are allowed to foster, why shouldn't they be allowed to adopt the child/children they are fostering?
The battle, in my opinion is at the foster care level.
This change of tactic is a sneaky back door attack by the Family Law Section.
Incidentally, membership in the Florida Bar is mandatory if one wishes to practice law in Florida. Section membership is optional. Let's see how many members the Family Law Section loses as a result of this.
this is one prayer God definitely won't hear.
You have FReepmail. :o)
FYI
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
The section will not loose many. The section has been very much infultrated.
The problem is not the fact that membership is optional is does not disguise the fact that the family law section is acting under the auspices of the Florida Bar.
In fact the family law section needs approval to lobby for any legislation. What the section did that is sneaky and deceitful on top of the way they phrased the legislation is that the member who is pro - homo proposed the law "as a citizen" and then turns around and "discovers" the proposal and seeks to get official bar sanction to do what they are ALREADY doing. (easier to ask forgiveness than permission)
The Board of Governors ALREADY said NO. So the section is no contumaciously and with deliberation disregarding the vote of the Board of Governors and prefers this disgrace the bar. If the Board of Governors can not regulate their own section (which has no respect for them) then how can the Board of Governors regulate ANY lawyer?
BTW the 11th pretty much was very clear on the distinction between foster care and adoption. Given the recent reports of sexual abuse by homosexual adults in the foster care system, I think the whole issue should be re-evaluated.
The homoadvocates seek to target FL because FL is one of six states which have prohibition against homosexuals adopting children.
Thre are also 27 states that prohibit or limit the ability of homosexual sex partners from adopting children of their sex partners. Heather can not have two momies as a matter of law. That is not PR'ed. In fact adoptions by homosexuals are done as single "parent" adoptions. The the recreational sex partner is added on later by some legal manuver.
I would respectfully suggest that the "infiltration" level isn't as high as you suspect, but there is a ferocious fear of being found "politically incorrect".
It is interesting to read the LTTE's regarding this issue in the Florida Bar News and of course the PC responses.
I'm not surprised at this. The handwriting was on the wall with regard to the statements made by the Governors who opposed the position in the first place as "too divisive". Many of them (I can't recall exact quotes from the Bar News article) hid behind the "membership" while of course positioning themselves on the side of diversity.
Is this a "done deal" by the Fam. Exec. Comm. or must the position once again pass the Big Bar Executive and/or BOG?
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