A group of Florida legislators filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending the state's ban on adoptions by gay people, saying the 25-year-old law "is not unconstitutional merely because self-styled 'child welfare experts' think it is not a good idea.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought a challenge to the Florida law on behalf of four gay men, who are foster parents or guardians, arguing that the law discriminates not only against homosexuals who want to adopt, but also the children raised by gay caregivers who cannot be adopted by them.
The Florida legislators filed their brief against a background of horrific failures and abuses in the Florida Department of Child Services. 2 year old Alfredo Montez, a Polk County child was beaten to death by a baby sitter who had become enraged that the toddler had soiled himself, wrapping his dead body in a blanket decorated with cartoon Dalmatians. Caseworker Erica Jones has been charged with falsifying paperwork which said she had checked on the child and found him in good health on the same day the boy was killed. It was another blow for the Department, which has been reeling since it revealed earlier this year it lost track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, a child under its supervision. Rilya has not yet been found. In May six children came forward telling of abuse and torture at the hands of a Jacqueline Lynch, a foster caregiver who had collected $150,000 from the state to care for the six children, even though one of her own children had previously been taken away from her by the state of Florida because of allegations of physical and sexual abuse in her home.
Copyright © July 14, 2002 by Bruce A.
Garrett
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