GAY ADOPTION IN FLORIDA

Gay Adoption in Florida

Gay Adoption in Florida

1) The History of Gay Adoption

Adoption started in Rome for the reason of giving an successor to families without a male inheritor. The adoption debate started when Anita Bryant in 1977 started a “Save Our Kids” movement to cancel an ordinance of gay rights in Dade County, Florida. Adoption by gay men and lesbians has become a major political issue. Particularly as lesbian and gay issues have gained more visibility; conservative advocates have raised an extraordinary campaign to ban gay & lesbians from becoming adoptive parents in many states. Within that extremely charged political milieu, the morality of permitting gay men and lesbians to adopt is a topic of fierce and often quite violent debate. (Laura, 2004)

At the start of the 21st century, the Florida state is still very much shaped by the desires and fantasies of those who come to the state, either as tourists, new residents, immigrants, or refugees. In South Florida, the most liberal part of the state, the lesbian and society of gay men is a recognized part of the larger social, political, and cultural community. The Miami community, with its large Latin lesbian and gay population, has a extremely cosmopolitan trendy character and is the site of many major international circuit parties and cultural events such as a major Lesbian/Gay Film Festival. There is an rising openness and visibility among South Florida black gay & lesbians with the creation of an LGBT Afro-American church and local black gay pride events. The city's African American and growing Haitian communities strongly supported the 1998 ordinance.

In Broward County, the nature of the community is shaped by the large influx of older lesbian and gay retirees from the northeast and the Midwest eager to build and participate in a growing, visible community. Labours to create and support lesbian and gay businesses, churches and synagogues, and media, social, and cultural institutions, together with the election of lesbian and gay officials, are important reflections of community identity and involvement. At various times of the year, the large, but less-organized communities in the Tampa Bay area, Orlando, Pensacola, and Key West come alive around celebrations like Fantasy Fest in Key West, Memorial Day Weekend in Pensacola and Gay Days at Disney World in Orlando. (Ryan, 2010)

The state-wide political scene is dominated by the fiscally and socially conservative Republican Party and its supporters. A sodomy law is still on the books, and Governor Jeb Bush, running for re-election in 2002, powerfully supported retaining the state ban on gay adoption. However, in a political first, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate, Bill McBride, a moderate north Florida corporate lawyer, openly campaigned for the vote of the lesbian and society of gay men. As in other states, it is obvious that the growth and social and political progress of the lesbian and society of gay men at the local level cannot be ignored at the state-wide level for ever.

2) How Gay Adoption Developed In the United States

Historically, ...