Martin Gill, the plaintiff in the ACLU’s lawsuit seeking to overturn Florida law banning gay people from adopting, participated in the Rally in Tally today to urge Florida lawmakers to support LGBT equality. The following is the speech Martin gave at the rally.
Good afternoon,
Thank you for all for being here.
I was happy being a foster parent. My partner and I have fostered a total of 10 children. Eight of those 10 were later reunited with the biological families. That is the first goal of foster care — keeping families together. Sure, giving kids back to their families is one of the hardest parts of being a foster parent, but my partner and I support and believe in reunification whenever possible.
We got a call from a DCF worker in December of 2004 wanting to place two young brothers. My first response was "No." We had recently bought a home in Georgia and were planning to relocate. The case worker was persistent and assured us the placement would only be a month or two. I knew we could give these two boys a good Christmas. The thought of them spending Christmas in a shelter really broke my heart.
So we agreed. And for the next several months we were happy enough with that arrangement.
Then about a year into their placement, when the rights of their biological parents were terminated, we were told that the goal for the children had changed. It was now permanency, and for those two, that meant adoption.
