Obama tried to help this woman in Florida.

• Obama tried to help this woman in Florida. - Sunflower
  • How does your garden grow? sm - m
    • This woman is originally from my town - long time MT-NY
  • One of those mean, selfish Republicans - helped? The left will find a way to slam the effor
    • I saw no mention of party affiliation.... - sm
      • Chene Thompson -- the wife of state Rep. Nicholas Thompson, R-Fort Myers -- sm - MT and worn out
        • Did you see the one about the young guy who worked - Backwards typist
          • Two more on this guy. Guess he got his 15 minutes of fame - Backwards typist
          • Opps! Watched it again and again. I made a mistake, sorry. - Backwards typist

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Not bad for a town whose population is 70,000 people.

http://news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS0107/80921022

(CNN) -- A Florida circuit judge Tuesday struck down a 31-year-old state law that prevents gays and lesbians from adopting children, allowing a North Miami man to adopt two half-brothers he and his partner have raised as foster children since 2004.

"There is no question, the blanket exclusion of gay applicants defeats Florida's goal of providing dependent children a permanent family through adoption," Judge Cindy S. Lederman wrote in her 53-page ruling.

"The best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption."

The state attorney general's office has appealed the decision.

Lederman said there is no moral or scientific reason for banning gays and lesbians from adopting, despite the state's arguments otherwise. The state argued that gays and lesbians have higher odds of suffering from depression, affective and anxiety disorders and substance abuse, and that their households are more unstable.

Lederman said the ban violated children's right to permanency provided under the Florida statute and under the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Whether the ban violated the state's equal protection clause by singling out gays and lesbians should be considered, she said.

Lederman's ruling paves the way for Martin Gill to legally adopt the two half-brothers, ages 4 and 8, whom he has cared for since December 2004, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

The two boys, who are referred to as John and James Doe in court documents, were removed from their homes on allegations of abandonment and neglect.

On that December evening, John and James left a world of chronic neglect, emotional impoverishment and deprivation to enter a new world, foreign to them, that was nurturing, safe, structured and stimulating," Lederman wrote.

In 2006, the children's respective fathers' rights were terminated, court documents said, and they remained in the care of Gill and his partner.

"Our family just got a lot more to be thankful for this Thanksgiving," Gill said Tuesday, according to the ACLU, which represented him.

Florida is the only state that specifically bans all "homosexual" people from adopting children, although it does allow them to be foster parents.

This month, Arkansas voters approved a ballot measure to prohibit unmarried partners -- same-sex or opposite-sex couples -- from adopting children or from serving as foster parents. The measure is similar to one in Utah, which excludes same-sex couples indirectly through a statute barring all unmarried couples from adopting or taking in foster children.

Mississippi allows single gays and lesbians to adopt, but prohibits same-sex couples from adopting.

Neal Skene, spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families, said the appeal was filed so a statewide resolution on the law could be determined by an appellate court. He noted that another Florida circuit judge declared the law unconstitutional this year but that ruling had not been appealed.

"We need a statewide determination by the appellate courts," he said.

Gill's adoption petition cannot be approved until the appeal process is finished, Skene said, but the children will remain in Gill's home.

"These are wonderful foster parents," Skene said. "It's just that we have a statute, [and] the statute is very clear on the issue of adoption."

Several organizations -- including the National Adoption Center, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics -- have said that having gay and lesbian parents does not negatively affect children.

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies adoption and foster care, hailed the decision.

"This ban, which was the only one of its kind in the country, has done nothing but undermine the prospects of boys and girls in the foster care system to get permanent, loving homes," said Adam Pertman, the Adoption Institute's executive director, in a written statement.

"So this decision by Judge Lederman is a very important, hopeful ruling for children who need families."

An eagle also needs to land sooner or later. Barak is neither left or right. Yes, he does lean a bit to the left, but for years we've had Bush lean to the extreme right thanks to his righteous evangelical radicals. This scares me a lot more. Please read and enlighten yourselves. Those of you who are still undecided are to be pitied. This campaign has been going on for so long, if you still don't know who to vote for....I would say you have a hell of a problem. Take your blinders off, Falwell is dead and I wish Limbaugh was too. The American people have brainwashed themselves and they like it. There are other great countries in the world, not just the U.S. They are proud patriots also and believe their country is the best. So wake up, READ about history and other countries. I live in a country that I would bet hardly of you know, let alone the capital. The country is called Canada and the capital is Ottawa. I too am proud of my country and I think IT IS THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!  Stop listening to those stupid radio talk shows who are nearly all republican........get a life. Vote for Barack, my God you folks need a change!!!

Monique

abort with no questions asked because it is her uterus and no one's business.  Yet you wish to take away the rights of people who don't believe in abortion and work in the medical field.  No job should require you to do something that you find unethical.  If you want to abort your child....fine....that is your decision and one that you will have to answer for and live with.  So many people are on here screaming about their rights and how dare their rights be taken away.  Forcing someone in the medical field to be involved in something they feel is unethical......isn't that taking away their rights.  They have a right to refuse.  There are other people in the medical field who would willingly perform an abortion....so why force those who find it unethical?  That is just wrong. 

Hi American Woman!  Come on back here regularly.  We have some really good liberal posters now.  Yes, Im in CA.  The fires are all around me but havent come to the desert yet (where I am).  They have been moving towards the ocean instead (opposite direction).  With a change of the wind, though, the fires could change direction, then they would come over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to get to the desert.  About two years ago a fire came up over the mountains and you could see it from my house and the air was thick with smoke and soot.  Was quite scary..but the firefighters were able to get it out.  Yup, CA, the land of mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes, torrential rains (when it does rain..smile).  So good to hear from ya..Come on back here.  The board isnt the same without ya. :o).

vote for a man who calls his wife a "cu_t" and a trollope?

I don't get it. This is his wife- supposedly the one he loves. Apparently doesn't respect!

What does he believe about other women?

Where on earth do you get your so-called news?  Moveon, Kos, or DemocraticUnderground?

If you care to ignore the teachings of Saul Alinsky, what do you think about his "church" associations?

Bill O'Reilly will be doing "The Obama Chronicles" on his show this week (or however long it runs), starting with Wm Ayers & Bernadine Dohrn. 

If you're looking for documented accuracy, Rush Limbaugh is certified 98%-ish right.  I hear it so often that the way it's said escapes me, but the libs know it, too.  That's only one reason they hate him so much.  Of course, the first is that he's got over 20 million listeners.  Nobody can touch those numbers.  Incidentally, I'm one of them. 

so that obviously makes her stupid and even though she has more experience than Barrack Obama......he has promised change and that is all they hear.  Hang a mannequin by a rope dressed like her and that is okay....just silly Halloween pranks.  Just don't do that to one looking like Obama because you will be charged and end up in jail.  Always double standards. 

You can't hang a black man because that is racist, but go ahead and hang a white woman because obviously that isn't sexist at all.  Makes me sick.

i also believe that homosexual marriage will grow the economy in ways no one will ever imagine.  It's too bad you don't believe in change.  Women have for many rights why not the right to bear or not bear a child if she so sees fit.  No one knows everyone's circumstances.  When you stand before God and take those vows it means for better or for worse, not "if I feel like cheating I will." 

If anyone posted on here that their husband was cheating; everyone would say counseling or dump him!  Why not McCain????  How is he better?

I won't go into abortion because I feel a woman has a choice.  If you want backyard hacks killing young mothers in a nonclinical setting, go right ahead and try to have abortion illegalized.  Also, get ready to pay for the welfare... 

Thanks Brunson for you objective views....it is refreshing.  You know how to respectfully post and carry on an adult conversation.

The only reason I am posting here is to state this even though it's blatantly obvious American Woman is not me. 

I read here, but I don't post here.  I might post my responses to posts here on the C board....but other than to clarify like I'm doing now I don't post here....I made a mistake on Friday posting here, but I got my boards mixed up.  Have a great day!

You have added much to the liberal board.  Don't let them run you off. That's what they come here for.  Don't give them what they want.