Florida Governor Charlie Crist has again reversed his position on the state's gay adoption ban.

Crist, a former Republican running for the U.S. Senate as an independent, released a position paper last month endorsing a number of gay rights initiatives, including the right of gay men and lesbians to adopt children, currently outlawed in the state of Florida. Last month, a 3-judge appeals panel upheld a lower court's ruling declaring the law unconstitutional. The state has not announced whether it will appeal the ruling to the Florida Supreme Court.

“We need to take politics out of adoption decisions,” Crist said in the document. “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?”

Previously, Crist had said he agreed with the law, but in the spring he started hinting that he was headed in the opposite direction.

Despite an official position on the subject, Crist backtracked again in a videotaped interview with the Palm Beach Post. (Video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

Referring to a February 26, 2010 interview where Crist said he agreed with the law, a male interviewer says: “You also said you favored the gay adoption ban. And now you don't.”

“It was a law on the books,” Crist responds. “I was the former attorney general. I have a sworn duty ...”

“That didn't mean you had to like it.”

“I didn't say I liked it,” Crist says. “I said I would enforce it.”

“No, you said you thought children do best in a home with a mother and a father,” a female interviewer adds. “Has that changed?”

After a long pause, Crist says: “No. What's changed is we have a court ruling that says that the law is unconstitutional. That's what has changed. And I respect the law.”

Similarly, in February, Crist said he agreed with the adoption ban because he respects the law, and added that he did not wish the appeals court to strike down the ban.

Congressman Kendrick Meek, Crist's Democratic rival, suggested, through a spokesman, that Crist's gay rights endorsement is not sincere.

“Charlie Crist showed his true colors today in explaining how he arrived at a new position on Florida's outrageous gay adoption ban,” Nathan Click of the Kendrick Meek for Florida campaign said. “His new stand wasn't a matter of conviction or principle as he previously claimed – it was a matter of politics. Crist even said he still believes children do best in a home with a mother and a father. Today, the governor proved he still feels the same way about equality for Florida's gay and lesbians – he still stands with conservatives firmly against it.”