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Posted: 21 Nov 2009 11:46 PM PST
Alex Sink, Herald photo by Charles Trainor
Normally,
American candidates for public office do not have to support a law
which endorses the rights of gay men and women to adopt children. That
is because all American communities and commonwealths allow gay men and
women to adopt children. With one exception. Orange Juice Land. Home of
Anita Bryant. Home of a handsome governor who apparently once partnered
with some younger gay men before marrying an older women.
This
brings us to Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer and the
leading Democratic candidate for governor. Last week at Fort
Lauderdale’s Museum of Art, she told a crowd of over 300 equal rights
activists that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt if it's in the
children's ``best interest.''
Alex Sink is a charming
woman, who overpowered me with her energy when she first appeared on my
radio talk show one morning at the Floridian. She has a commanding
presence, and I think her warmth and personality will sweep her to the
governorship over a rather staid Bill McCollum, the state’s Attorney
General.
The thing is Alex will need all the charm she
can muster to change the law if she wins. Our legislature is still
regressive and right wing, dominated by Neanderthal Republicans who
have steadfastly refused to amend the law in the face of all common
sense evidence to the contrary.
Gays and Lesbians can be
buoyed by some judicial decisions striking the statute, such as the one
authored by Judge Cindy Lederman in Miami. Those rulings are working
their way through appellate courts. So time will give us an ultimate
outcome.
Nevertheless, no legitimate GLBT forum can
ignore the courage and conscience of Alex Sink today in speaking out.
Even though gays are allowed to serve in an interim capacity as foster
parents, Florida is the only state with an outright ban on adoption by
lesbians and gay men.
As the Attorney General charged with the
responsibility of defending state statutes, Bill McCollum, Ms. Sink’s
opponent for Governor, is charged with defending the law. It would be
ironic if Mr. McCollum supported overturning it as well, but he does
not, though to his credit, both as a candidate and AG, he has been
supportive of hate crimes legislation.
Still, how can
anyone reasonably say that the same gay couples who foster children for
years should not be allowed to adopt them for life? No one with a
modicum of intelligence can argue such a ludicrous position. No one in
49 other states in our union attempts to.
