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.”