Florida’s gay adoption ban ruled unconstitutional. Social worker highly recommends “loving and nurturing home” of gay couple

The Miami Herald reports that a Monroe Circuit Court judge has ruled Florida’s 31-year-old gay adoption ban ”unconstitutional” in an order that allows an openly gay Key West foster parent to adopt a teenage boy he has raised since 2001.

Declaring the adoption to be in the boy’s ”best interest,” Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. said the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is contrary to the state Constitution because it singles out a group for punishment.

A home study by a social worker ”highly” recommended the guardian and his partner be allowed to adopt the boy, saying the two men provided a ”loving and nurturing home,” provided ”fair and consistent” discipline and are financially secure.