Florida Attorney General Bill
McCollum's decision not to appeal a ruling that struck down as
unconstitutional the nation's only outright ban on gay adoption means
gay men and lesbians can adopt children in the state after 33 years.
But in his bid to win the Republican
nomination for governor, McCollum said he not only opposes gay
adoption, but he also opposes gay people acting as foster parents.
McCollum made his remarks in an
interview with the Florida Baptist Witness.
“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.”
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.”
Last month, a
3-judge appeals court unanimously upheld the ruling that found the
law to be unconstitutional and to have “no rational basis.”
On Friday, McCollum
announced he wouldn't pursue the case any further.