Child support for same-sex parents

I see that the California supreme court ruled today that same-couples could be forced to pay child support. Ineveitably, I'll get some calls from people in now-defunct same-sex relationships in Florida asking what their rights are.

This seems like a no-brainer. On these types of issues, California and Florida are about as far away legally as they are physically. As the law stands, there is no chance, in my opinion, that a Florida court would grant child support, visitation, or other child-related rights where the children were born (or adopted) by a same-sex couple. Remember, Florida is the only state that, by statute, prohibits gay couples from adopting.

Also, the California case was based on previous California law that said that, when a man holds children out to be his own (he tells people they are his kids, pays for their food and cloths, etc.), even if they are biologiocally not his children, he still may be required to pay child support. This is not at all the case in Florida, where there is a strong movement against forcing men to pay for children that are not their own.

So, I think the odds of child support or visitation resulting from a same-sex relationship in Florida are pretty much nil.