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 For the last four years, Martin Gill and his partner have been raising two foster children in their North Miami home. The brothers, now age four and nine, have thrived in Martin and his partner's care. After the parental rights were terminated in 2006, Martin and his partner hoped to adopt the children. Since 1977, however, the state of Florida, while allowing gay and lesbian couples to serve as foster parents, has automatically banned adoptions by gay people. 
 
 
 
 With the help of the ACLU, Martin is challenging this ban, and last November a juvenile court judge granted the adoption. The case is not settled yet though because Florida's attorney general immediately appealed the lower court's decision. Fortunately for now, the brothers remain in Martin and his partner's care. ||||| Today’s column looked at the issue of adoption in Florida — the last state in America with an outright ban on gays and lesbians becoming adoptive parents. 
 
 One of the most disturbing parts of this story was the way those trying to discredit the gay couple at the heart of an important court case did so through an incredible misrepresentation. 
 
 This (on the left) is the picture that the Florida Family Policy Council of Orlando,a group of conservative Christians, used to illustrate the gay couple that was awarded custody of a relative by a South Florida judge. It appeared under the headline: “FL judge violates law, places child in homosexual adoption” — and then named one of the women in the case next to the photo. 
 
 This (on the right) is the actual couple, Melanie Leon and Vanessa Alenier. 
 
 I asked John Stemberger, the head of the Florida Family Policy Council if he could defend such a thing. Early this morning (after today’s paper had been printed), Stemberger sent back a note saying that the photo selection was a “mistake” that he unfortunately only learned about after he had sent out the newsletter. And he made a point of saying that none of his recipients had complained about it. 
 
 UPDATE: (Feb. 4, 2 p.m.) — John Stemberger decided to offer his ”sincerest apologies” to the couple above. He posted it in the comments section below (10:20 a.m.). Interestingly, Stemberger also posted another version of his “apology”on his organization’s website a few minutes later — one that’s a little less … hmm, shall we say, contrite? There, among other things, he suggest that he’s the one owed an apology … and that the whole column – which focused largely on the issue gay adoption in general - was the result of a “slow news day.” I’m not sure all the folks who care about the issue of adopting kids in this state view the topic as quite so trivial. But, if you’d like to read Stemberger’s version of why he was wronged, i t’s here. 
 
 (The other strange part of Stemberger’s explanation is that he now claims the above photo referred to ”different improper homosexual adoption” from another Florida case. But I’m not sure that’s true either — ’cause that story was about Martin Gill, who is featured here (right). And the picture he now claims is Gill is actually labeled “Gay Woman” on the site from which Stemberger’s group lifted it. But hey, it’s been kind of hard to follow Stemberger’s claims from the get-go. So if anyone has anything remotely resembling proof that one of the two folks actually is Gill, please feel free to share.)
– A Florida court has struck down the state's 33-year-old ban on gay adoptions, ruling that the law is unconstitutional and there is "no rational basis" for it. Gov. Charlie Crist says the state will stop enforcing the ban immediately, although he hasn't commented on whether the state plans to appeal the ruling to the Florida Supreme Court, the Miami Herald reports. "Given a total ban on adoption by homosexual persons, one might expect that this reflected a legislative judgment that homosexual persons are unfit to be parents,'' stated the court, which noted that the law was the only remaining one of its kind in the country. "No one in this case even hinted at any such argument. The parties agree 'that gay people and heterosexuals make equally good parents.'" The case was a hard-fought battle by plaintiff Martin Gill and his partner, who have been foster parents to two brothers, now 6 and 10, but were blocked from adopting the boys. "I'm going to get their birth certificates with me listed as their father. That will be a thrilling thing for me," Gill told AP.