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Orlando, FL – Today, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal ruled that the state law which bans adoption to those engaged in active homosexual activity violates the Florida Constitution equal protection clause. The case will likely be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. The case is being defended by the Florida Attorney General. Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief in support of the law. 

In 2004, the federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the same law against a challenge brought under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Florida’s equal protection clause is construed the same way as the federal Equal Protection Clause. In Lofton v. Kearney, the federal court ruled that the Florida legislature properly made a policy judgment that it is not in the best interests of its displaced children to be adopted by individuals who engage in current, voluntary homosexual activity. The Eleventh Circuit stated “The legislature is the proper forum for this debate, and we do not sit as a superlegislature to award by judicial decree what was not achievable by political consensus.” However, today, in the case of In re: Matter of Adoption of X.X.G. and N.R.G, the state court of appeals struck down the same law, stating that it lacked a rational basis. 

Under Florida law, adoption is a privilege and not a right and, as such, the state may make classifications in the adoption arena that may be constitutionally suspect in other areas. The decision to adopt a child is not a private decision but a public act. In the prior federal court of appeals case, the Lofton court relied on Liberty Counsel’s amicus brief in upholding the law and in finding that the Florida legislature had “a legitimate interest in encouraging a stable and nurturing environment for the education and socialization of its adopted children…. [b]y seeking to place the children in homes that have both a mother and father.” The instant state court case ignored the evidence that children do best with a mom and a dad. Permitting homosexual adoption would preclude children from the opportunity of having a mom and a dad.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, stated: “Common sense and human history underscore the fact that children need a mother and a father. The Florida law seeks to ensure that children are placed in homes that have the potential of a mother and a father. Homosexual adoption precludes children from having parents of both genders. Gender does matter to the well-being of children. Moms and dads are not optional non-essentials in the lives of children.”

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