Whack-em in the kneecaps and damn them for not being able to run

[NYTimes] This is interesting, because the case would be cut-and-dried as a discrimination case: 4 gay plantifs want to adopt children. It's against FL law to permit gays to adopt children, the only state with such a law on the books.

The appeal to US Court of Appeals (Atlanta) came back that the prime issue is not relief against discrimination, but the welfare of the child. And, to quote: "'Openly homosexual households represent a very recent phenomenon, and sufficient time has not yet passed to permit any scientific study of how children raised in those households fare as adults. Given this state of affairs, it is not irrational for the Florida Legislature to credit one side of the debate over the other. Nor is it irrational for the Legislature to proceed with deliberate caution before placing adoptive children in an alternative, but unproven, family structure that has not yet been conclusively demonstrated to be equivalent to the marital family structure that has established a proven track record spanning centuries.'"

The Supreme Court let that ruling stand, without comment. It's interesting logic, and not fundamentally flawed, however discriminatory. It says that states decide for themselves, with arbitrary considerations which need meet only a minimum standard of rationality, what requirements an adopting household must meet to provide for the best interests of the child.

So, overturning this requires a generation in which openly gay, married households raise children. If, after that generation, it can be shown that such children don't fare any worse than in straight, married households, I presume the applicants will return. Of course, gays can't marry in Florida, nor in any state except Massachusetts.

It's classic legal "whack-em in the kneecaps and damn them for not being able to run." Remember back before African Americans had legal rights to vote? Some states gave "literacy" tests designed to keep them from voting. Of course, education was so bad in part because African Americans had no political representation. And, they couldn't sway politicians to improve their education, because they didn't vote. And, they were kept from voting in large numbers, because education was so bad.

So, here is another example of a right that straight couples have, which will be denied gay couples -- at least in Florida -- until a generation after they are permitted to marry.