It's a case of one-step-forward-two steps-back in Florida - Worth Noting - Brief Article

Humanist, Sept-Oct, 2002 by Karen Ann Gajewski

* It's a case of one-step-forward-two steps-back in Florida. On the positive side: citing Florida's constitutional prohibition on state-funded religious education, Leon Circuit Court Judge P. Kevin Davey struck down Florida's statewide school voucher program. The voucher plan was the cornerstone of Jeb Bush's 1998 gubernatorial campaign. On the negative side: a new anti-privacy adoption law--defeated for six years but passed in 2002--requires every woman in Florida (regardless of age) seeking adoption for her child to publish an ad in her local newspaper with her name, description, and complete list of sex partners. As initially passed, the law even applied to rape victims. A judge has since excluded all of the latter, with the exception of victims of "consensual" statutory rape.

Karen Ann Gajewski is associate editor and art director at the Humanist.