WASHINGTON - January 29 - This week's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to uphold Florida's law prohibiting gay people from adopting children in the state was an "awful decision" that harms children in need of loving parents and stable families and violates fundamental notions of fairness and equal treatment under the law, said Ralph G. Neas, president of People For the American Way Foundation.

"Less than a year ago the U.S. Supreme Court moved us away from treating gay and lesbian Americans as second-class citizens," Neas said. "Now the 11th Circuit is sounding a deeply regrettable retreat from that progress. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with being a good and loving parent."

"On a human level, this law is simply cruel," said Neas. "It means that foster children who have been cared for lovingly by gay parents for years, and who have known no other family, cannot be legally adopted by their foster parents. The politicians and pundits who support this discriminatory law love to mouth pieties about children and families, but they are brutally indifferent to the children and families that are hurt by it."

###