After endorsing
a number of gay rights measures on Monday, Florida Governor
Charlie Crist on Tuesday said he is considering dropping the state's
lawsuit that seeks to uphold Florida's ban on gay men and lesbians
adopting children.
The former Republican now running for
the U.S. Senate as an independent told reporters that he's going to
review the appeal.
“I think we need to review that,”
Crist said. “It's better to have more of the judicial branch
involved in this process.”
Crist has previously hinted that he
disagrees with the nation's only law that outright prohibits adoption
based on sexual orientation, but in a document released Monday
endorsing a number of gay rights initiatives, but which stopped short
of backing marriage equality, he said he objected to the ban.
“We need to take politics out of
adoption decisions,” he said. “That is why I oppose Florida's
current law that requires Family Law judges to ignore what is right
for a child in order to adhere to what Florida law blindly demands.
There is only one question that matters: What is in the best interest
of the child?”
Rand Hoch, president and founder of the
Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, a group that advocates for
gay rights, told On Top Magazine that he doubts Crist's
sincerity.
“Over the years, I have tried to give
Charlie Crist the benefit of the doubt, but I can no longer do that.
There have just been too many times he could have supported our
community and either chose not to do so or actively came out against
our interests,” Hoch said, referring to Crist's support for placing
a constitutional ban on gay marriage in Florida's Constitution.
As recently as last month, Crist
reiterated
his support for banning gay marriage during an appearance on CNN's
State of the Union.
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), which is representing Martin Gill, the man who sued the state
for the right to adopt two boys in his foster care, said Gill does
not want the appeal to be dropped.
In 2008, Gill won his case in a
Miami-Dade court, but without a ruling from a court with statewide
jurisdiction the ban would remain in effect for most of Florida.
In addition to supporting gay
adoptions, Crist also said he backs repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't
Tell,” the 1993 that forbids gay troops from serving openly, a
federal gay-inclusive anti-bullying measure, a federal bill that
would allow the spouses of gay government workers access to benefits,
and the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a controversial bill
that Congress has previously attempted to attach to immigration
reform measures with little luck. The UAFA would allow gay Americans
to sponsor a spouse for citizenship over the objections of the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that forbids federal
agencies from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and lesbian
couples.
Crist, who
has long denied rumors that he's gay, defended his shift on
Tuesday, saying he's become “less judgmental” with age.
“I think that the older you get, the
less judgmental you become. Maybe I was more rigid earlier. But I
don't feel that way. And I know who's suppose to be judging people
and it's not me.”