GOP gives up kids' lives to scare up votes

By William Butte
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 6 2006

"I love my dads and they love me back, and that is one thing that Florida can never take away from me."

Ironically, it was Valentine's Day when 18-year-old Franke Alexandre found himself in Tallahassee before the five-member Florida Senate Committee on Children and Families, defiantly declaring his never-ending love for his foster parents, Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau.

Franke wants his dads to adopt him. But because Florida law bans gays from adopting, the state would rather rip the family apart.

His brave appearance before the committee, as with other witnesses, was an attempt to persuade the three Republican members to vote for a bill sponsored by Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, and supported by Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, which would allow gays to legally adopt foster children if a judge finds, by "clear and convincing" evidence, it in the child's best interest.

Franke told the committee about his short life with its eyebrow-raising details -- details he shared on the op-ed page of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel the same day: Born HIV-positive; mother died of AIDS soon after; uninvolved biological father.

It certainly explains his passion for a love that can never be taken away.

Lofton and Croteau, pediatric nurses specializing in AIDS at the hospital where Franke was born, took him and three other HIV-positive infants into their home. Their exemplary care of these special needs children earned them the first "Outstanding Foster Parenting Award" from Florida's Children's Home Society. Later, the family moved to Oregon to live near Lofton's elderly parents and expanded with two more HIV-positive children.

Franke has thrived under Lofton and Croteau's superior medical and parenting skills and today he is ready for college. But before he turned 18, the state of Florida demanded he return or lose his much-needed financial support.

Unfortunately for Franke, neither his powerful story and love for his foster dads nor their extraordinary parenting skills swayed Republicans Mike Fasano of New Port Richey, Evelyn Lynn of Ormond Beach and Durell Peaden of Crestview. So Rich, fighting an adoption ban she said was "born out of bigotry and prejudice," had to table her bill.

One reason for Franke's failure is bad timing.

With 2006 midterm elections approaching, Republicans, eager to deflect attention from questions over ethics and Iraq, reportedly are gearing up in at least 16 states to pass laws or secure November ballot initiatives to prevent gays from adopting. As they did in 2004 with antigay marriage amendments in 11 states, their plan is to draw out millions of socially conservative voters, like an Ohio pastor who said gays adopting gives the opportunity for "experimenting on children."

And with our decades-old, appeals- court-upheld anti-gay adoption law as the blueprint for other states to follow, there isn't a snowball's chance in the Keys of Florida Republicans watering it down.

That's the same chance Franke has this election year in his fervent desire to legally be part of the only family he's ever known. He's up against the Republicans' fetid desire to retain and expand their political power at whatever cost, even if it's playing the homophobia card at the expense of our society's neediest children.

The Children's Bureau, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services statistics show that of more than 532,000 children in the foster care system -- virtually all survivors of dysfunctional heterosexual households -- approximately 120,000 are available for adoption. Yet less than half (about 50,000) find permanent homes each year.

So although some will argue kids like Franke need homes with a mother and father, there just aren't enough June and Ward Cleaver types out there willing to fill the need.

Even more tragically, many adoptable foster children don't fit the profile of the ideal child many couples want. They're older (at least 20,000 "age out" of the system annually), of a minority background or have a serious enough illness to be labeled a special needs child.

Who will adopt these children?

Many times the answer has been gay men and lesbians. UCLA demographer Gary Gates analyzed 2000 Census figures and estimates 12,500 adopted children live in households headed by a gay adult.

In Franke's published letter he called Lofton and Croteau "my dads" or "my parents" a dozen times. He wants to be adopted into the only family he's ever known. You'd think the members of a political party that espouses "traditional family values" could understand that.

Yet his plea fell on deaf Republican ears, because this election year they are more than willing to turn kids like Franke into political pawns in the culture war for the sake of votes and power.

William Butte resides in Deerfield Beach. E-mail him at wmbutte@bellsouth.net.