Update: Rosie, the Loftons and Gay Adoption

ByABC News
April 17, 2002, 12:08 PM

April 18 -- Elaine Bloom, a Florida legislator for 18 years, voted to ban gay adoption in 1977. Since Primetime's broadcast shed new light on the issue, she is one of many taking action to change the law.

"We expressed our shame at having been part of the people who voted in 1977," said Bloom, who helped organize a group of former legislators who are pushing to have the ban overturned and replaced with a system that would approve adoptions on a case-by-case basis. "We said we were wrong and we meant it, and we hope that the courts or the legislature will improve the situation as rapidly as possible."

Former state Sen. Paul Steinberg and former state Rep. Barry Kutin agree with Bloom that the Florida law is now archaic, saying it was passed at a time when little was known about gay parents.

"I think there's more examples for studies to prove that children are in no way impaired or harmed by being adopted by a gay parent," says Kutin. "We did not have that information, or if that information was available, it was not made available to us in 1977."

If Steinberg could still vote, he too, would do things differently. "Look at the parents, look at the child, do what is best for the child. This law does not have to remain on the books of the state of Florida," he says.

Their change of heart stems from O'Donnell's public stand, and her interview with ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer on Primetime.

"I think a lot of people who may have had certain fears before this are now recognizing that if somebody like Rosie O'Donnell was seen as a loving parent, why even put any barriers in front of the possibility of letting a lot of foster children find loving and supportive homes?" says Bloom.

As for O'Donnell, she once said that she was going to support former Attorney General Janet Reno in her race against Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But she now says it's time to remove the issue from party lines, that making good homes available to kids in the foster care system should not be political.