Florida

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...

It is currently illegal for a gay couple to have two or more foster children living with them in Oakland Park, Florida - a small city just west of Fort Lauderdale. Current city laws forbid more than three people - not related by blood, marriage or adoption - to live as a family. But that's about to change.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

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

President Barack Obama apologized by phone to a woman prevented from seeing her dying partner at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Just a few years ago, Janice Langbehn [left] pleaded with doctors to get hospital visitation - as her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma. Eight hours passed before Langbehn would be allowed into the Trauma Center. By then, she could only say her final farewell as a priest performed the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond [right].

Florida is the only state in the country that doesn't allow gay people to adopt - but the city commission of West Palm Beach took a stance against the ban by voting unanimously to support its repeal.

State representative Mary Brandenburg has co-sponsored a bill in the Florida legislature that would repeal the ban.

Lake Worth and Wilton Manors previously passed similar resolutions supporting the repeal.

The Florida Family Policy Council - which opposes adoption by gay couples - uses scare tactics and stereotypical profiling to inform its members - according to a blogger at Sociological Images. FFPC contacted its members about a judge's ruling to allow a lesbian couple to adopt a relative's child they had been fostering. On the left is the photo included with the alert; on the right is a photo of the actual couple.

Florida's adoption ban was ignored again by fair-minded people with authority. State child welfare administrators agreed to provide health insurance, college tuition and other benefits to the adopted son of a gay Key West man.

The Miami Herald reports: