Florida gubernatorial candidate Bill
McCollum says he would ban gay men and lesbians from serving as
foster parents.
In a recent interview with the Florida
Baptist Witness, McCollum, a Republican, said he would advise
officials to alter the state's law that currently allows gay men and
lesbians to serve as foster parents but prohibits them from adopting.
“I really do not think that we should
have homosexuals guiding our children,” he said. “I think that
it's a lifestyle that I don't agree with.”
Florida is the only state with an
outright ban on gay adoption. Several states, most recently Arkansas
in 2008, prohibit unmarried couples from adopting children and ban
gay marriage.
As attorney general, McCollum defended
Florida's prohibition. He personally urged the state to hire ex-gay
leader George Rekers to testify as an expert witness in favor of the
gay adoption ban. Rekers was paid $120,000 for his testimony.
The 61-year-old Rekers of North Miami
was exposed
in May by the Miami New Times as having hired a male
prostitute off the pageviews of gay website RentBoy.com. The
20-year-old escort, named Lucien by the paper, but whose real name is
Jo-Vanni Roman, claims he provided Rekers with daily body rubs in the
nude during their 10-day European vacation, adding that Rekers liked
having his anus rubbed by the younger man.
When asked about Rekers, McCollum
denied that the scandal had compromised the state's case.
“I would never have chosen Rekers had
I known what we now know today,” he said. “And it's unfortunate
that all this publicity has come up over it, but the lawsuit, I
think, is on sound ground and we're carrying it forward.”
Gay adoption has also leaked into the
campaigns of other high-profile races.
Sharron
Angle, the GOP nominee challenging Nevada Senator Harry Reid, said
last week that she opposes protections based on sexual orientation
and gay adoption.
Karen Handel, a Republican running for
governor of Georgia, recently
said she would sign a bill that bans gay and lesbian couples from
adopting children.