UPDATE! Florida Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum is shifting his remarks on gay foster parents and gay adoption. After remarking to a Baptist publication that he doesn’t think gays should adopt or foster children – gay foster parents are currently legal in Florida, but adoption by gays is not – McCollum made new remarks the day after he those quotes were released.
He told reporters he would wait for an appellate court ruling over whether openly gay people can adopt before weighing in further on the issue.
“The laws are inconsistent and there needs to be a review,” McCollum said. “My personal belief is that it is best to have parents who are a man and a woman to raise a child. That’s my view. I think that is by far preferable for the child.”
Original story: Florida Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum wants to ban gay men and lesbians from serving as foster parents in his state. He made the declaration in an interview with the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper released Monday, just months after he fought to keep the state’s ban on gay men and lesbians from adopting.
In the interview McCollum said that as governor, he would work hard to make sure that gays and lesbians never raised children in Florida—either by adoption or foster parenting.
“I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children,” McCollum told the paper. “I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with.”
He goes on to say that he realizes that many disagree with him, but that his faith outweighs public opinion.
“I don’t believe that the people who do this [love the same sex] should be raising our children,” he told the paper. “It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.”
The interview, presented in Q&A-style on the Florida Baptist Witness website, shows McCollum’s stance on several issues concerning LGBT citizens.
On the issue of marriage, not surprisingly McCollum says it should be a union between a man and a woman.
“I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I believe that a family should consist of one man and one woman. I don’t believe in gay adoption. I don’t believe in involving the government in enforcing or encouraging the lifestyle of gays and homosexuals. I just don’t believe that.”
He goes on to say that he does not support hate crimes legislation protecting LGBT people because “we’ve had no reason to enforce a law on the basis of sexual orientation.”
McCollum will face Republican challenger and Miami-based business man Rick Scott in the primary election on Aug. 24.
