Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — Commissioners in Orange County, Fla., voted earlier this week to extend anti-discrimination laws, adding marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity to other protected statuses in private sectors of business and housing.

Bringing an end to Florida’s 33-year-old ban on gay adoptions, state attorney general Bill McCollum announced Friday that he will not appeal to the state supreme court a lower court ruling that the ban was unconstitutional.

Florida will cease to enforce its ban gay adoptions, as the Department of Children and Families announced Tuesday that it would not appeal the September decision by the Third District Court of Appeals that the ban was unconstitutional.

Ten U.S. states signed onto a legal brief Friday in opposition to same-sex marriage, claiming a federal court “exceeded its judicial authority” when it ruled that California’s Proposition 8 — the 2008 voter-approved ban on gay marriage — was “unconstitutional.” The amicus brief sent Friday to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said that […]

A court ruling declaring Florida’s ban against gay adoption unconstitutional was upheld Wednesday in a decision by the Third District Court of Appeals in Miami, affirming the controversial adoption of two foster children by a gay Miami couple. The Miami Herald reports: The unanimous 3-0 decision deals a critical blow to Florida’s 33-year-old law banning […]

Charlie Crist, the current governor of Florida and Independent candidate for U.S. Senate, is preparing to endorse an wide array of pro-LGBT legislation and gay rights issues, as early as this week, according to a report by RawStory.com.

Bill McCollum, Florida’s Attorney General and a Republican candidate for Governor, has made it clear he supports his state’s ban on gay adoption, and he doesn’t think gay people should be allowed to be foster parents, either.

File this under “WTF?” Florida lawmakers are hoping to pass a $75 million incentive package to attract movie studios to film in the sunshine state, but a little noticed provision could deny tax credits to movies that feature gay characters or other “non-traditional” families. Current state law gives tax credits on productions that are “family […]

Florida’s outdated gay adoption ban took another hit after a Miami judge approved the adoption by a lesbian couple. Vanessa Alenier and Melanie Leon of Hollywood, FL, became the third gay couple in the last year to be approved to adopt, directly contradicting the state’s 1977 law against it, according to the Miami Herald. Alenier, […]

Fort Lauderdale attorney and radio host Norm Kent plans to launch a new weekly newspaper geared toward South Florida’s LGBTQ community. The new print and online publication, the South Florida Gay News.com will be published on Mondays, with more than twelve thousand copies slated for distribution in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Nicknamed SFGN, […]