Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled on Tuesday that a 31-year-old Florida law that bans gays and lesbians from adopting children is unconstitutional, allowing Martin Gill and his partner to adopt their two foster children that they have raised since 2004. The Orlando Sentinel reports that:

“…these children are thriving. These words we don’t often hear within these walls. That’s uncontroverted,” said Circuit Judge Cindy S. Lederman. “They’re a good family. They’re a family in every way except in the eyes of the law. These children have a right to permanancy,” the judge said. “The only real permanancy is adoption in the home where they are thriving. “There is no rational basis to preclude homosexuals from adopting,” Lederman continued.

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Some states, such as Mississippi and Utah, prevent gays from adopting by using laws that prohibit unmarried couples from adopting. But Florida expressly targeted gays with its 1977 law, enacted during Miss America runner-up Anita Bryant’s anti-homosexual crusade. Florida Statute 63.042 states: “No person eligible to adopt under this statute may adopt if that person is a homosexual.”

Florida is the only state that expressly prohibits gays and lesbians from adopting. For more history, Campskunk has a good post over at Alegre’s Corner with a vid of homophobe Anita with pie face. Here is an Associated Press vid with more of the story: