Gay Florida Couple That Challenged State Adoption Law And Successfully Overturned 33 Year Old Ban Officially Adopt Sons, Census Reveals Southern United States More Welcoming To Same Sex Couples Raising Families, New Same Sex Partner Hospital Visitation Rights Regulation Takes Effect, Seattle Police Investigate Apartment Vandalism As Possible Hate Crime

The American Civil Liberties Union issued a press release Wednesday morning, announcing that Martin Gill, whose challenge to Florida’s ban on gays and lesbians adopting successfully overturned the archaic 33 year old law, finalized the adoption of two brothers that Gill and his partner have been foster parents to for six years. “We are thrilled that after so many years, we are officially a family in the eyes of the law,” said Gill. “All children deserve a permanent, loving home. This is a happy day.” Gill and the ACLU filed suit against Florida arguing that the ban prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting (but not from acting as foster parents) was unconstitutional. The 3rd District Court of Appeal agreed in an October, 2010 ruling, and Attorney General Bill McCollum decided not to appeal the ruling. The gay adoption prohibition was enacted in 1977, Florida the only state to do so. The Department of Children and Families have since changed its forms so perspective adoptive parents are not asked their sexual orientation.

The New York Times reports on new date collected by the Census Bureau that reveals child-rearing by same sex parents is more common in the Southern United States than any other area of the country, and that those parents and that those patterns tend to deny popular stereotypes of “a mainstream gay America that is white, affluent, urban and living in the Northeast or on the West Coast.”

The Washington Post on the implementation Tuesday of new federal rules governing hospital visitation rights to same sex partners, the new rules, which apply to hospital receiving Medicaid and Medicare funding, state that health care institutions cannot prohibit visitation rights based on sexual orientation. Previously, hospital frequently prevented visitors not related to an incapacitated patient by blood or marriage. Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said of the changes “Of all the things same-sex couples have to worry about, of all the discrimination and pressures we face, not being able to see our partner or spouse shouldn’t be one of them. This new policy will have a positive impact on same-sex couples and our families throughout the nation.” President Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to draft the new regulations in 2010 after learning of two lesbians unable to be with the same sex partners before they died.

Seattle police are investigating a possible hate crime, authorities determining whether vandals spray-painted gay slurs inside a Capitol Hill apartment complex, KING 5 reporting that someone sprayed the anti-gay graffiti inside the laundry room of a building in the 1400 block of Boren Avenue last Tuesday. Erik Showstead, who manages the building, believes that the vandals are the same individuals who have been repeatedly breaking into the building within the past two weeks, and that they came back to send him and the building’s tenants a message. The 42 year old openly gay Showstead says “I’m very angry. Why did they have to do that? These are hard working people that I would be gobsmacked that any of us being called that (slur).” The visible upset Showstead says Seattle police have been vigilant in pursuing the case, and hopes an arrest is made soon. “I’m just done,” he said. “I want them away from my building. I want to have what I created, back.”