Gay foster parent saves two brothers from uncertain future

St. Petersburg Times columnist Robyn E. Blumner helps us get to know the two lucky sons [John, age 8, and his brother James, age 4] of 47-year-old Frank Martin Gill, who is gay. Miami Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled Tuesday there was “no rational basis” for prohibiting Gill from adopting the brothers.

Blumner describes in excruciating detail their fragile shape when the boys entered Gill’s life as foster children.

“When they arrived in December 2004 at the North Miami home of their new foster parents, then-4-year-old John was wearing a dirty adult-sized T-shirt and sneakers that were four sizes too small and worn like flip-flops. Both he and his brother had scalp ringworm and 4-month-old James had an ear infection. John did not speak, couldn’t hold a pencil and had never seen a book before.

“John, it seems, had only one concern and that was changing, feeding and looking out for his baby brother. At the beginning, John hoarded food and hid it in his room. His foster parents would bring him to the stove at mealtimes to see the great quantities of food available, assuring him there was plenty.

“The brothers went from a world of chronic neglect and deprivation to one that is nurturing, stimulating and safe. I know all this because it is laid out in throat-lumping plainness by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman, who ruled on Tuesday that the boys could be adopted by their foster father Gill.”