Judge slams same-sex adoption ban

MIAMI, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- A circuit court judge in Florida has ruled the state's 31-year-old ban on adoptions by openly gay men and women is unconstitutional.

Monroe County Circuit Judge David J. Audlin Jr. issued the ruling in the case of a gay Key West foster parent who seeks to adopt the special needs teenage boy he has been taking care of, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Audlin declared the adoption to be in the boy's "best interest" and said the Florida law forbidding gay people from adopting children is unconstitutional.

"Contrary to every child welfare principle the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that … it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual," Audlin wrote.

A home study by a Florida social worker "highly" recommended the foster father and his partner be allowed to adopt the boy, saying they provided a "loving and nurturing home."