Florida’s Martin Gill Can Keep His Adopted Kids: DCF Won’t Appeal. (But …)

Florida’s Department of Children and Families will not appeal last month’s state appeals court ruling declaring unconstitutional the state’s ban on gay adoption, which uphold the November 2008 ruling of a lower court. It’s great news for Gov. Charlie Crist, who can finally stop forgetting whether he supports it or not. DCF will modify its adoption forms so applicants are no longer asked if they are gay (!). There’s still one possibility of appeal: Attorney General Bill McCollum, lover of rentboy patrons, could move ahead by himself.

Says Joe Follick, a spokesman for DCF secretary George Sheldon: “We had weighed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court to achieve an ultimate certainty and finality for all parties. But the depth, clarity and unanimity of the DCA opinion – and that of Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman’s original circuit court decision – has made it evident that an appeal would have a less than limited chance of a different outcome.”