Beach Mayor to Urge State
to End Gay Adoption Ban
Just ‘Delete That One Line,’ He Says

“He’s not taken seriously because everyone knows he’s in the hip pocket of homosexual extremists.”

Mayor David Dermer will introduce a resolution
urging an end to the gay adoption ban.

By Ryan Brown

Toward the bottom of Florida statute 63.042, the following sentence can be found: “No person is eligible to adopt if that person is a homosexual.”

“We’re the only state in the country that explicitly bans adoption by homosexuals,” David Dermer, mayor of Miami Beach, tells the SunPost. “The change being advocated is very simple: In the statute, we delete that one line.”

Dermer has placed a resolution on the January 17 Miami Beach City Commission meeting agenda, “urging the Governor and Legislature to abolish the prohibition against adoption by homosexuals in the State of Florida.”

“Florida’s ban on adoption by homosexuals in Chapter 63 of the Florida Statutes has existed for almost 30 years and is an out-dated vestige of a 1977 movement to discriminate against gay and lesbian individuals,” the resolution reads.

The resolution goes on to quote The American Psychological Association’s conclusion that  “home environments provided by gay and lesbian parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth,” and the American Academy of Pediatrics, that commissioned a study, which concluded “more than 25 years of research has documented that there is no relationship between parents’ sexual orientation and any measure of a child’s emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment.”

“We’re thrilled that someone is taking a stand,” said Kirk Arthur, field director for SAVE Dade (Safeguarding American Values for Everyone). “It’s cruel for the children and cruel for the parent that they can be foster parents – but not adopt – what kind of message does that send?”

SAVE Dade successfully lobbied the City of Miami Beach to pass an Equal Benefits Ordinance which took effect July 1.

According to Anthony Verdugo, founder and executive director of the Miami-based Christian Family Coalition (CFC), “It’s a lot of hot air…I think it’s laughable… This mayor is the least credible mayor in the county. He’s not taken seriously because everyone knows he’s in the hip pocket of homosexual extremists.”

The CFC has fought similar measures to legalize adoption by homosexuals in Florida in the past. “CFC DEFEATS HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION BILL!” the organization’s website, mdccc.org, proclaimed, claiming that the CFC “led the effort to block SB-172, a bill that would have legalized homosexual adoptions in Florida…thanks to the hundreds of phone calls and e-mails, it was stopped.”

The bill, which died in the state’s Committee on Children and Families on Saturday, May 6, 2006, would have made gay adoption legal by January 1^st of this year.

“This issue has been taken thru state federal courts,” Verdugo says. “It’s the law of the land in this state.”

“Studies show that there is no difference in children raised by straight or gay parents,” Arthur said.

“There’s always opposition,” says Dermer, “but this is not a debate on gay adoption, it’s about people being treated equally. I believe the city commission will support this resolution and I’m going to talk to the governor and state legislature at their meeting in March.”

Comments? E-mail ryan@miamisunpost.com.