Martin Gill

After five years of legal battles, Martin Gill and his partner recently won the right to adopt their two sons. Now the family has received a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to attend a holiday celebration at the White House.

"The Obama administration was very supportive of us and gay adoption," Gill said.

This will be the sixth year the couple and their sons will be together as a family, but the first year the state of Florida legally recognizes them as such.

Florida's Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon says the state won't remove Martin Gill's children from their adopted home - even if a judge rules that Florida's ban on adoptions by gay couples is valid. Sheldon also said that the appeals court has had the case for an awfully long time - and wondered what was taking so long. "It's time for that case to be decided," he said. Sheldon's remarks followed comments last week by Gov. Charlie Crist about the state's appeal of Lederman's ruling.

Nadine Smith, leader of Equality Florida, hand-delivered a message to President Obama which asks him to ban adoption discrimination in the state. HuffPost reports: "For a few moments last week, the President carried in his pocket a picture of two boys standing in front of the White House...

Our friend Martin passes along these links to stories [and satire] regarding George A. Rekers - a nationally known anti-gay psychologist - who testified for the State of Florida in its defense of the state's gay adoption ban. Rekers admits that he recently took a trip to Europe with a gay male prostitute from Miami who advertised himself online.

• Miami Herald

Northern California's Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) - Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee - will host a panel discussion upon reintroduction of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act.

The proposed legislation would offer more homes to foster children by working with states to end discrimination against adoptive and foster parents based on sexual orientation and marital status.

Over 250 fair-minded demonstrators marched to the Florida Capitol Tuesday to lobby for repeal of the state's legal ban on adoption by gay couples and passage of bills to include sexual orientation in civil-rights laws.

The Florida Bar supports gay adoption.

The Bar's board of governors voted unanimously to file an amicus brief before the 3rd District Court of Appeal supporting a Miami-Dade circuit judge's ruling that declared unconstitutional the state's ban on gay adoptions.