Florida gubernatorial candidate Rick
Scott says he disagrees with an appeals court ruling that upheld
a lower court's decision that the state's ban on gay adoption is
unconstitutional.
Scott spoke out against the ruling
after a town hall-style event in Jacksonville on Thursday, The
Florida Times-Union reported.
“Children should be raised in a home
with a married man and a woman,” the GOP nominee told reporters.
Governor Charlie Crist, who is running
as an independent for the U.S. Senate, said he was pleased with the
decision.
But the state's attorney general, Bill
McCollum, an outspoken critic of gay adoption, has so far remained
mum.
McCollum's office did release a
statement through a spokeswoman to the New York Times. The
spokeswoman said the department is weighing its options on whether to
appeal the case to the Florida Supreme Court.
The
Republican has previously said he objects to all forms of gay
parenting, not only gay adoption. In
an interview with the Florida
Baptist Witness he said that he
would ban gay men and lesbians from serving as foster parents.
“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.”
McCollum
became closely associated with the case after he urged the state to
hire ex-gay leader George Rekers to testify as an expert witness in
favor of the gay adoption ban. The 61-year-old Rekers, who was paid
$120,000 for his testimony, was
exposed in May by the Miami
New Times as having hired a
20-year-old male prostitute off the pageviews of gay website
RentBoy.com.
McCollum,
however, insisted
the scandal had not damaged the state's case.
Last
month, McCollum lost his bid to become the GOP nominee for Florida
governor.