Martin Gill

Nadine Smith, leader of Equality Florida, hand-delivered a message to President Obama which asks him to ban adoption discrimination in the state. HuffPost reports: "For a few moments last week, the President carried in his pocket a picture of two boys standing in front of the White House...

Our friend Martin passes along these links to stories [and satire] regarding George A. Rekers - a nationally known anti-gay psychologist - who testified for the State of Florida in its defense of the state's gay adoption ban. Rekers admits that he recently took a trip to Europe with a gay male prostitute from Miami who advertised himself online.

• Miami Herald

Northern California's Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) - Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee - will host a panel discussion upon reintroduction of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act.

The proposed legislation would offer more homes to foster children by working with states to end discrimination against adoptive and foster parents based on sexual orientation and marital status.

Over 250 fair-minded demonstrators marched to the Florida Capitol Tuesday to lobby for repeal of the state's legal ban on adoption by gay couples and passage of bills to include sexual orientation in civil-rights laws.

The Florida Bar supports gay adoption.

The Bar's board of governors voted unanimously to file an amicus brief before the 3rd District Court of Appeal supporting a Miami-Dade circuit judge's ruling that declared unconstitutional the state's ban on gay adoptions.

St. Petersburg Times columnist Robyn E. Blumner helps us get to know the two lucky sons [John, age 8, and his brother James, age 4] of 47-year-old Frank Martin Gill, who is gay. Miami Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled Tuesday there was "no rational basis" for prohibiting Gill from adopting the brothers.

Miami Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled Tuesday there was "no rational basis" for prohibiting gays from adopting children. The ruling will allow 47-year-old Martin Gill to adopt two young brothers he has cared for as foster children since 2004.

Florida has one of the strictest bans on gay adoptions in the country. A judge in Key West ruled in September that the ban was unconstitutional, but that ruling has had limited legal impact.