FLORIDA: Appeals Court Rules Ban On Gay Adoption To Be Unconstitutional

Florida's Third Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court's 2008 decision that a ban on gay adoption in unconstitutional. The state now has the option of taking the case to the state Supreme Court, although Florida governor Charlie Crist said last week that he may drop the state's suit. The ACLU brought the case on behalf of Martin Gill and his partner, who have been seeking to adopt the two boys they have fostered since 2004.

Testifying in the first case was infamous Dr. George "Rent Boy" Rekers, who later resigned from the "ex-gay" organization NARTH after he was photographed returning from a European vacation with buff young male prostitute. The Rekers scandal and his $120,000 witness payment from the state may have played a role in Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's loss in the gubernatorial primary.