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It's time to end Florida gay adoption ban
Michael Mayo
News Columnist
November 30, 2008
Wayne LaRue Smith was outside the Andrews Diner in Wilton Manors on Friday when he interrupted our phone conversation.
"I'll have to call you back," Smith said. "My son just came out and
told me my breakfast is on the table. You don't know how good it feels
to say that: My son."
It took seven years and a court fight, but Smith recently became the
legal father of a 12-year-old boy. Not a foster parent. Not a guardian.
A father.
"We have a final order of adoption," Smith said. "It's done."
Smith, a Key West attorney and part-time Fort Lauderdale resident, has
been a foster parent to 33 children over the past decade. He and his
partner have provided a safe, nurturing home to neglected and abused
kids in the state's child welfare system.
But until a Monroe County judge ruled in his favor in August, he wasn't allowed to adopt through the state.
Why? Because he's an openly gay man.
In Florida, gays can be foster parents, but they can't adopt.
"Crazy," said Smith, 53, who has been with his partner, Dan Skahen, for 16 years. "I've yet to hear a good explanation of that."
Florida is the only state with an outright ban on gay adoption, but two recent judges' decisions have upended the law.
First came Smith's case, in which Monroe Circuit Judge David John
Audlin Jr. ruled that Smith could adopt the boy he has fostered the
last seven years. Because the state didn't contest or appeal the
ruling, it wasn't viewed as precedent-setting.
Last week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman also declared the
law unconstitutional, granting the adoption of two half-brothers to
Frank Gill, a gay North Miami Beach foster parent who has raised them
for four years.
The state intends to appeal, setting up a potential landmark showdown
in the Florida Supreme Court over the 1977 legislative ban, a vestige
of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade.
Some opponents view the recent rulings as outrageous judicial activism.
Smith prefers to think of them as courageous rationalism.
"Our opponents are always yelling about renegade judges who don't
follow the law, but these judges are making decisions based on the
state constitution, which is the supreme law," he said.
Audlin ruled the adoption ban was an unconstitutional "special law"
treating gays differently from the general population with no rational
basis. Lederman also ruled there was no valid legal or scientific
reason to regulate adoption based on sexual orientation alone.
"She did a very meticulous chronicling of all the research and focused on what's best for the children," Smith said.
Even if Lederman's ruling is overturned on appeal, Smith said his son's
adoption can't be reversed. He just received the boy's revised birth
certificate from the state, listing him as father.
Smith and Skahen, a real estate agent, are raising two boys, whom they didn't want to identify by name.
Besides Smith's son, they also have an 11-year-old foster child. Smith
is his legal guardian, and they expect to raise the boy to adulthood.
"They call each other brothers and say they have two dads," Smith said.
He said little has changed in the family's day-to-day life since the
adoption. On Friday, the boys chased iguanas in a park after Smith
locked his keys in his car.
Asked whether he or Skahen will try to adopt the younger boy, Smith said, "Stay tuned."
Michael Mayo's column is published Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
Readers can write to him at mmayo@SunSentinel.com or call him at
954-356-4508.
Laurie