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Florida Family Action urges Gov. Scott to veto adoption bill

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Social conservatives in Florida are urging Rick Scott to veto an adoption bill because it lacks a “conscience protection” provision for faith-based adoption and foster care agencies. CS-HB 7013 was a bill strongly supported by Senate President Andy Gardiner as the session began. It re-creates a program to provide a financial benefit of $5,000 or $10,000 to state employees who adopt foster children, as well as provide incentives to community-based care lead agencies and their subcontractors for achieving specified adoption performance standards. But…

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Joe Saunders mulling possible comeback in House District 49

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Former Democratic state Rep. Joe Saunders is “talking to family and friends about what the future may hold” now that state Rep. Rene Plasencia — who narrowly defeated Saunders in a razor-thin contest in District 49 last November — has opted to run in a more Republican-leaning adjacent district in 2016. Saunders took to social media on Sunday and later caught up with SaintPetersBlog to address the shifting electoral landscape in Orlando. “The news that Rene Plasencia won’t seek re-election in House District 49 has given me…

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House water bill language finds a new home as session winds down

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Language from a comprehensive House water bill was added on Thursday to other environmental legislation in the House over objections from Democrats. But the water bill language lacks key components of the Senate bill that is important to that chamber’s leadership, raising questions about whether the move represents gamesmanship between the two chambers. And some environmentalists say they’d prefer to see the bills die, effectively ending what some observers predicted would be the “year of water” in the Legislature. HB…

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Jason Brodeur says it’s time to call a truce on gay adoption controversy

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On Thursday, the Florida House passed Sanford Republican Jason Brodeur’s controversial  “conscience protection” bill. The legislation would allow private adoption agencies whose “written religious or moral convictions” do not permit children in their care to be adopted by gays or lesbians to refuse to make such placements. The agencies would not face the possibility of losing their licenses or state funding. In the lead-up to the vote, Brandon Republican Ross Spano and Ocala Rep. Dennis Baxley spoke passionately in support of the…

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Florida House approves law to allow private agencies to turn away gay couples from adopting

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The Florida House on Thursday passed a measure that would let private agencies that cite religious or moral grounds to turn away gay couples seeking to adopt children. By a 75-38 vote, HB 7111, sponsored by Sanford Republican Jason Brodeur, was passed. Brodeur proposed the legislation only after the House voted last month to repeal the state’s 38-year-old ban on same-sex adoptions from state statute, though gay adoption has been legal since the courts ruled the ban unconstitutional back in 2010. The…

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Florida House moves ‘conscience protection’ bill forward

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The Florida House today passed a controversial bill that its sponsor says would protect the religious rights of private adoption agencies, but Democrats, LGBT activists and others say gives those agencies carte blanche to discriminate against same-sex couples. Sanford Republican Jason Brodeur’s bill emerged in the past month, immediately after the House passed a measure that repealed the ban on gay adoption from state statute. Gay couples have been allowed to adopt since the 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled…

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Dennis Baxley on why he reversed his vote on gay adoption: ‘I simply can’t affirm homosexuality’

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Speaking to talk-show host Bill Bunkley on Tuesday afternoon, Ocala House Republican Dennis Baxley stood by his decision to reverse his vote on a bill that would provide incentives to state workers who adopt children from foster care — while also repealing part of state law that in the past banned same-sex couples from adopting. “If you get it wrong you need to own it and you need to seek forgiveness, and that’s where I’ve been with this,” Baxley told…

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