Exactly who is against gay adoption in Florida?

It’s an interesting question given the state is engaged in a legal battle to prevent a gay foster dad from adopting the two boys he rescued from a crack house.

Quickly, here is how we got where we are, and the players involved.

Foster parent Frank Gill filed a lawsuit against the state, challenging its archaic ban on gays adopting children. No competent mental health official backs the ban. It denies needy kids stable homes for no other purpose than meeting the political agendas of right-wing homophobes.

Gill’s case puts the state in a particularly conflicted position because he has been an exemplary parent, restoring horribly abused children to physical and mental health.

The lawsuit was aimed at the Florida Department of Children and Families, which oversees adoptions and enforces the ban.

At the time, former Attorney General Bob Butterworth was the DCF Secretary. Nobody believes he supports the ban.

In fact, you would be hard pressed to find anyone at DCF who does. People who work in the field understand how destructive the law can be.

So why fight the lawsuit?

State agencies are required to abide by the law, even if they don’t like the law.

There was a fear that if DCF simply capitulated, legislators would go after the agency. That could lead to a ban on gay foster parents – a nightmare scenario for DCF as some of its most caring foster parents are gay. There also was the possibility social conservatives would go for some kind of referendum on the matter.

Charlie Crist, who oversees DCF, backs the adoption ban. Of course, wait five minutes and ask him again, and that may change.

Butterworth hired Attorney General Bill McCollum to defend the agency. This is a client-attorney relationship, with the AG’s office billing DCF for its services.

Butterworth then left DCF and was replaced by George Sheldon, a former legislator who voted against the gay adoption ban while in the legislature.

McCollum’s office was responsible for finding George Rekers, the now-infamous rentboy.com psychologist. McCollum is trying to parse his responsibility, saying that DCF hired him and paid him.

This is nonsense. DCF hired and paid him inasmuch as DCF is paying for the lawsuit.

Rekers is McCollum’s train wreck. Period.

In fact, a 2007 McCollum letter to Butterworth just surfaced, in which McCollum said about Rekers: “”I believe that this expert and his testimony are necessary to ensure a successful result in this case.”.

McCollum hired him even though Rekers had been discredited in a similar Arizona lawsuit.

This would be like me hiring a roofer whose last customer was left mopping up leaks. And I knew it before hiring him.

McCollum would not take a position on the adoption ban in an interview last week, but basically implied he did not support it, citing a gay member of his staff who had adopted children.

McCollum has a valid argument when he says he doesn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing what laws to defend. He can’t just take a pass on laws he opposes. Think of the precedent that would set. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defended the Defense Against Marriage law even though he and President Obama oppose it. They caught heat from gay rights groups.

I’ve seen McCollum’s office criticized for pursuing the case against Frank Gill with zeal. That’s what lawyers do — what they are required to do.

It was DCF’s decision to appeal the case when Gill prevailed in circuit court.

The courts could throw out the statute. I imagine that would get the social conservatives riled up for a ballot referendum to enshrine their bigotry in the state constitution.

The ultimate resolution would be for the Legislature to throw out the statute.

Good luck with that.

I do believe there are those religious conservatives out there who would yank these poor children from Frank Gill’s loving home, and really believe God is on their side. Sad. But most responses I’ve received from Christians support his effort to give these boys a stable and lasting home.