Florida Gay Adoption Ban No More

Florida attorney general Bill McCollum announced Friday that he will not that he will not appeal last month’s ruling by a state appellate court striking down a state law barring gay people from adopting.

McCollum’s announcement puts a final end to the law after 33 years on the books. Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Department of Children and Families had already announced they would not challenge the decision.

The attorney general had until yesterday to decide whether he would challenge the decision.

“This law, by baselessly branding gay people unfit parents, was one of the most notorious anti-gay laws in the country, and we are delighted that it has been ended once and for all,” said Leslie Cooper, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project, who argued the case before Florida’s third district court of appeal. “This victory means that the thousands of children in Florida who are waiting to be adopted will no longer be needlessly deprived of willing and able parents who can give them the love and support of a family.”

Florida Ends Ban on Gays and Lesbians Adopting

The state of Florida has overturned its ban on gays and lesbians adopting children.

Governor Charlie Crist announced the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruling this week and said the ban would end immediately, although the decision can be appealed.

The 1977 law made Florida the only US state to ban gay adoption, despite permitting gays and lesbians to foster children.

This week, the court upheld a 2008 ruling by a Miami-Dade judge who approved the adoption of two young brothers by Martin Gill and his male partner.

The boys were neglected by their biological parents and were placed with Mr Gill and his partner in 2004.

Writing on behalf of the three judges on the appeal court panel, Judge Gerald Cope pointed out the disparity of allowing gays and lesbians to foster but not adopt children.

"It is difficult to see any rational basis in utilising homosexual persons as foster parents or guardians on a temporary or permanent basis, while imposing a blanket prohibition on those same persons," he wrote.

"All other persons are eligible to be considered case-by-case to be adoptive parents."

Gay rights campaigners in Florida have warned that gay adoption opponents may seek to place a measure in the state constitution barring gay people from adopting.

Speaking after the ruling, Mr Gill said: “This is just the news that we have been waiting so anxiously for here.

“This is a giant step toward being able to give our sons the stability and permanency that they are being denied.”

Leslie Cooper, a senior staff attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, which supported Mr Gill, said: “Florida’s law unconstitutionally singles out gay people and the children in their care for unequal treatment, denying many children the long-term security that comes with adoption.

"We are grateful that the court saw the cruel consequences this law has on children, especially those in foster care who may never know the security of a permanent home.”

Charles Perez: "We Found Our Way Around Florida's Ban on Gay Adoption"

"Are you a homosexual?" she asked.

"Excuse me?" I responded.

"Are you a homosexual?" she asked again.

It was not her second question, or the third, but the first question once I told her I was interested in adopting.

Her name was Sue. She was the on-phone representation of "Our Kids" one of Miami's premiere adoption agencies. Given Florida's anti-gay adoption laws, I didn't blame her for her question, but I didn't like it, either. I knew if I were to tell the truth, that my partner and I are gay men who want kids, the call would be over. I knew if I lied, we might move forward, and maybe even end up with a child, acquired under false pretenses with one of us as the parent and the other pretending, all the while building a web of lies to prove our acceptability to a system that has deemed us unworthy.

Unwilling to lie, I told her the truth and the call quickly ended.

All we wanted were kids and a family, when there are so many kids in the state of Florida who need families.

David Strah, in his book Gay Dads, talks about the growing phenomenon of gay fatherhood, and how so many of us, upon coming out, thought we had to give up the dream of ever becoming a parent. Instead, Strah argues, the instinct to build families and raise kids is a part of who we are, straight or gay. It is a right of being human that we don't have to abdicate because of our sexual orientation.

That said, I wish the state of Florida felt the same.

Not long after that call my husband and I were invited to a welcome home party for two beautiful twin boys who had been adopted by a friend and his same sex partner. The boys were born out of state and were now, at one year old, finally coming home. Their story gave us hope, but it also raised a lot of questions. How did they locate these boys? How did they manage this out-of-state adoption? Was the adoption legal in Florida? And, why'd it take a year to bring them home? Little did I know these questions and their answers would drive our lives for the next year.

My former colleague directed us to an out of state attorney who specialized in counseling prospective adoptive parents. Familiar with Florida's anti-gay adoption laws he made one thing very clear, "When you locate the right baby for you, you'll likely have to move there, take up residency and wait out the 6 months to a year for the adoption to be finalized before you can go back to Florida." Additionally, we were told, without reservation, were we to return to Florida before finalization, the Department of Children and Families has the right to take our child away from us and put our child into foster care. We could then lose our child forever.

"But, what if we were straight?" I asked.

"Then you'd take your baby right home," he responded. "Florida would honor with full faith and credit the court's decision in the birth state and you'd wait for finalization while living at home in Florida."

"Wow!" I responded. "Not only is Florida discriminating against gay people as parents, but also against those of us who can't afford the time of the money to disappear for up to a year."

"Exactly," he said.

That reality made me sad. As an unemployed former news anchor I had the time, and with a husband who has a great job and career, we could make it work financially. But what about the school teachers who'd make great parents? Or, what about all those loving and embracing would-be working class and middle class gay parents who might make the choice to adopt if only the state of Florida didn't stand in their way?

Regardless, grateful for our relative good position, we decided to move forward, and so we scheduled a home study with a Florida state approved child placement agency.

The home study went great. They reviewed our histories, our families, friends, education, finances, pet records and medical records. They came to our home and put their findings together in a report that would be delivered to any judge considering placement. We felt great about it, but there was one significant catch. No matter what they'd concluded, it was against the law for us to be approved. No set of circumstances, no matter how potentially favorable to an adoptive child, could be enough to get approval. Approval was against the law.

In good faith, however, they did the next best thing. Hoping a judge in another state would read between the lines, they wrote, "this agency -- regrettably -- cannot pursuant to Florida Statue 63.042(3) approve either Mr. Perez or Mr. Rinehard for adoption. However, I can offer this: But for Florida Statue 63.042(3), this agency would highly recommend Mr. Perez and Mr. Rinehard as adoptive parents without reservation."

Though these words would not open any doors in Florida, they would open doors somewhere else. Our first stop was Missouri.

Mary Ann was identified as our first potential birth mother. She said she was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl! After 2 weeks on the phone and a couple of Western Union cash transfers, everything changed. We wanted her medical records to both confirm her pregnancy and learn the health in the baby. That's when she disappeared.

Next there was Cindy. Cindy lived in a Chicago half-way house designed to get her back on her feet after serving prison time. We liked that she lived in a controlled environment since the earliest days of her pregnancy. She talked to us about her dreams for her daughter and how she knew we were the ones to parent her child. But then, on a trip to Chicago to meet her, she turned. She was demanding money like only a drug addict or someone who's been around one can understand. She left her halfway house, returned to the streets and decided to spend the last trimester of her pregnancy on crack cocaine. She told us, "This is not about you. It's not about the baby. It's about me." We walked away.

Finally, we came to the woman who would be our birth mother. She was a smart, sweet, drug free young woman from Kansas, who just didn't want to have another child. She didn't seem to care that we were gay, and neither did the State of Kansas. Kansas has no laws supporting gay adoption, but they also have no laws banning it.

Having asking us to be in the delivery room, we cut the umbilical chord and witnessed our daughter's first courageous reach up and out of the womb and into the world. It was glorious. Tears ran from our eyes for about 3 days. They were tears of love and gratitude. Gratitude for our beautiful daughter, for the gracious and generous birth parents who put their baby ahead of themselves and gratitude for the state of Kansas, that put its babies before bigotry.

Then, in the midst of this celebration, we received a final slap from the State of Florida. We discovered we were unable to get health insurance for our little girl because our insurance policies required that any adoption be in compliance with Florida Statute. Now, we thought, not only are they hurting us.. they're hurting our baby. So for now, we wait, pray for good health, and hope that Medicaid will fill any gap should anything unthinkable happen.

It's been a roller coaster of a ride, filled with hope and disappointment, love and acceptance, birth and renewal. But, in short, we'd do it again. The experience of seeing our love amplified into a family has had the effect of making all those other important things in our lives seem small. It is a blessing that we deserve. But, more importantly, it is a blessing every Florida child deserves.

So, for now, we remain in Kansas, blissfully changing diapers, alternating midnight feedings, staring into her deep blue eyes, and wondering why this couldn't have happened in Florida.

Charles Perez is a former main anchor at Miami's ABC station and an anchor at New York's WABC. He and his Husband, Keith Rinehard were married in Westport CT in September 2009. Perez' book, Confessions of a Gay Anchorman comes out in November.

Elton John Putting Adoption Plans On Hold For Now

David Furnish and Elton John have been trying to adopt a baby from another country for a while now, and have been very disappointed after some big letdowns. The Canadian filmmaker and his musician husband tried to give a home to a Ukrainian child last year, but the adoption didn't go through because Elton, at 63, was deemed too old and because of their gay marriage.

Speaking at the Butterfly Ball in London's Battersea Park, David told BANG Showbiz: "We did take age into consideration but we're both like teenagers anyway so it wasn't an issue for us."

Although Ukrainian law stopped them from becoming parents, the 47-year-old star has revealed the couple will try again. He said: "We were both just so heartbroken by what happened last year, we just want to have a break and enjoy the summer."

David insists he and Elton will look at adopting from other countries but admits it is difficult for gay couples all over the world, even in the UK. He said: "It's very difficult even in Britain. I think we're going to look at different places in the future, but not for now."

The star-studded Butterfly Ball, which was held in to raise money for the Caudwell Children charity, was also attended by Elizabeth Hurley, Peter Andre, Dame Shirley Bassey, Lulu, Sarah Ferguson - the Duchess of York and Princess Beatrice.

The charity supports children with over 300 different conditions.

John Barrowman Feared Backlash Over Haiti Adoption Plans

Actor John Barrowman considered adopting an child orphaned by the Haiti earthquake - but feared he would be lambasted for following in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie and Madonna.

The gay star was so upset when he saw footage of children who had been left parent-less following the disaster in January, he discussed adopting a young Haitian with his partner Scott.

But after much consideration, Barrowman abandoned his adoption plans over fears he would be criticised by the media for jumping on the foreign adoption "bandwagon".

He told The Sunday Telegraph, "With all the kids who've been orphaned out there (Haiti), I said to Scott, we could really help. Then I thought to myself, if I did that, the press would jump on it. That I'm on a bandwagon, and I'd be an Angelina and a Brad, or I'm doing what Madonna did. But if you're going to adopt a child, you should look at adopting in your own country first, because there are a lot of children within the U.K. who need to be adopted. So if that was ever to happen, I would want to adopt from the U.K. and if there were still children who needed a home, say, in Haiti, then we'd do that. We can offer a child a loving home and a great opportunity they would never have had."

Jolie has adopted three children from abroad; Maddox from Cambodia, Pax from Vietnam and Ethiopian-born Zahara, while Madonna adopted David and Mercy, both from Malawi

Anderson Cooper: “I Am Not Adopting a Child, Haitian or Otherwise.”

Gee, the National Enquirer get a story wrong? How could it be?

Their latest “scoop” involved CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, just back from Haiti after a few weeks of stellar coverage. The Enquirer reported that the Silver Fox was so devastated by the earthquake that he was set to adopt a Haitian child! Who do they think he is? Madonna? Angelina Jolie?

Anyway, Anderson said to www.Towleroad.com that the story is simply not true: “While the plight of children in Haiti has touched us all, and I continue to cover the situation there closely, stories about me adopting a baby are false. I am not adopting a child, Haitian or otherwise.”

Elton John & David Furnish Vow to Find Home for Ukrainian Children

Elton John and his partner David Furnish couldn't get permission to adopt a 17-month-old HIV-positive boy from the Ukraine last year, but they aren't giving up just yet. The couple are committed to finding the boy and his three-year-old brother a permanent place to live outside of the orphanage where they are now.

David told Closer magazine: “We are going to find a home for those boys in the Ukraine. We will get them a home as it would be a long uphill battle to bring them over here.”

Elton, 62, and 47-year-old David’s adoption bid was halted because same-sex marriages are not recognized by the Ukrainian government, and according to the country’s laws, Elton is too old to adopt. However, they pledged to support the youngsters by paying for their education and healthcare.

Meanwhile, David has also revealed he and Elton did not have an extravagant Christmas, despite their reputation as big spenders. He said: “I got Elton a piece of art. We have a one present rule at Christmas. We don’t want it to be about stuff. We like to spend time with one another. We need the rest!”

Adoption Might Still Be Possible for Elton Johnand David Furnish

Ukraine's family, youth and sports minister, Yuri Pavlenko has had a change of heart in terms of Elton John's adoption bid.

He had previously said Elton was too old and too homosexual to adopt 14-month-old Lev from the country (the Ukraine doesn't recognize same-sex unions), but for whatever reason, Pavlenko corrected himself yesterday.

He said (via The Telegraph): "Sir Elton John has the right and opportunity to invite the family of this boy to visit him, take them under his guardianship and help him grow into a good person."

The other kink in Elton's plan is the fact that Lev isn't actually up for adoption. Although he lives in an orphanage, his mom is still alive. Both he and his mom are HIV-positive.

Pavlenko continued, "I'd like to ask everyone to be tolerant to the boy. This is not an orphan, the child has a mother and an elder brother and so he cannot be adopted by law. He has a difficult fate, like his mother. Help has been provided to his mother to find strength to bring the family back together."

From what it sounds like, Lev's family would have to officially put him up for adoption for the process to begin, but if they did, Elton wouldn't see too much resistance from the Ukranian government.

Elton announced last weekend that he and his partner David Furnish wanted to adopt Lev, saying the little boy had "stolen his heart."

Elton John Cannot Adopt Ukrainian Orphan

The Ukrainian orphan Elton John wants to adopt will not go home with the singer and his longtime partner David Furnish, a Ukrainian family minister said Monday – citing a national law that prohibits unmarried couples from adopting, the Associated Press reports.

John and Furnish entered into a civil partnership on Dec. 21, 2005, the first day such unions became legal in John's native England.

John, 62, met Lev, a Ukrainian toddler, while touring an orphanage where many of the children's parents have died from AIDS.

"Having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him," John said over the weekend. "I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home."

Ukrainian laws are very strict when it comes to adoption. Not only do the laws ban same-sex couples from adopting, they also state that the parents cannot be more than 45 years older than the child. Their only hope would be a presidential dispensation to take home 14-month-old Lev.

On Monday it was also revealed that, according to the country's law, should Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko grant John and Furnish's wish, the pair would also have to adopt Lev's brother, who is also in care.

Neil Patrick Harris: 'We'd Make Very Good Parents'

Despite rumors to the contrary, Neil Patrick Harris, star of How I Met Your Mother and host of this year's Emmys says he and partner David Burtka and are not expecting a child – yet.

Still, "We'd make very good parents," Harris, 36, tells New York Magazine. And they're already making one very good couple.

"We yin and yang very well," he tells the magazine. "I'm just bowled over by him. I'm his forever protector, and I'm happiest when he's happy."

But coming to terms with his sexuality in Hollywood wasn't always so easy for the former child star of Doogie Howser, M.D. "I tried ... dating different girls, being the funny, witty guy at the party," he says.

One person that helped inspire him? A gay Real World cast member. Danny Roberts, of The Real World: New Orleans, "was a unique entity at the time, as someone who was seemingly so confident in their own skin," says Harris.

As host of this year's Emmy Awards, Harris jokes that he hoped to include the Muppets – specifically Statler and Waldorf up in the balcony – in the opening number. And while that plan didn't pan out, the actor jokes, with self-mocking air quotes, that he'll make this year's show the "classy Emmys."

Tune in to the show September 20th to see what he means!

Elton John Considering Adopting Ukranian Orphan

Sir Elton John has revealed that he wishes to adopt a 14-month-old boy named Lev who he met at an Ukranian orphanage.

Lev, whose parents died of AIDS has "stolen" Sir Elton's heart.

Sir Elton said he and his civil partner David Furnish were now thinking of adopting: "David and I have always talked about adoption, David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said 'no' because I am 62 and I think because of the travelling I do and the life I have, maybe it wouldn't be fair for the child.

"But having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home. I've changed my mind today."

Elton John & Partner are Too Busy to Be Parents

Sir Elton John may be set to play his 250th and final performance of his show, The Red Piano, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas Wednesday night, but that doesn't mean he and partner David Furnish will suddenly settle down to build a family.

"I don't think our lives are suited to raising children," Furnish, 46, told People at last weekend's GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles. "We're busy flying places all the time."

Said Furnish, "Elton is not really going to come off the road. We don't want to put the raising of children into the hands of nannies and housekeepers. We want to be active parents. We have godchildren [and] kids that we support in Africa, so we're fine."

Furnish, 46, and John, 62, have 10 godchildren, including the offspring of pals Victoria Beckham and Elizabeth Hurley.

After dating for 12 years, the two were joined in a civil partnership in December 2005, under a then-new British law for same-sex couples. So while Furnish and John are not married, they enjoy similar benefits to married couples.

Reflecting on their time together, Furnish says, "When all the dust settled, we looked at each other and said, 'Wow, this feels really nice.' We did it in Britain in a civil partnership, initially for human rights reasons. We recognized it as ground-breaking legislation we wanted to send a message out to the world that we felt it was something that deserved recognition and support."

But civil partnership is more than a political statement, says Furnish: "Your love and union has been ratified and accepted by society, and that's a really nice feeling."