I have a number of politics/freedom related posts to upload, but here’s a quickie.

The ACLU reported today that the Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in an ACLU lawsuit challenging Florida’s law banning lesbians and gay men from adopting. This was a response to Florida’s challenge to the 11/25/08 ruling by the Juvenile Court that a gay couple could adopt. (The full post is here.)

I want to draw your attention to something in particular:

Despite these admissions by DCF, the agency responsible for child welfare in Florida, the State’s lawyers put on expert witnesses who offered an outlandish menu of justifications for the exclusion. They argued primarily that the exclusion is warranted because gay people are prone to problems like psychiatric disorders, drug abuse, and unstable relationships. They also asserted that gay parents cause their children to be gay and that gay people should be excluded from adopting because society is prejudiced against them and their children might be exposed to that prejudice.

What if the word ‘gay’ was changed to ‘black’ or ‘asian’? Or ‘elderly.’ You would hear the howls of outrage from coast to coast. (Never mind the incredible circular logic of that last sentence.)

I’m beginning to think that an ongoing test of discrimination is to replace descriptor nouns with similar ones for a diferent population.