NORTH MIAMI, Fla. -- A North Miami couple is the latest to challenge Florida’s decades-old ban on adoption for same sex couples, by launching a court fight Wednesday in Miami.

Frank Martin Gill and his partner have been foster parents to 4-year old and 8-year old half brothers since 2004. The state terminated the parental rights of the boys' birth mother which makes them eligible for permanent adoption.

"I'm just trying to do what I believe is the best thing and in the best interest of my kids," Gill said. "I'm trying to give them a permanent home."

To do so, Gill is challenging Florida's ban on gay adoption. The state law, which has been upheld for 32 years, passed in the climate of Anita Bryant's campaign against gay rights.

In this case, Gill has a few things going for him. The judge, Cindy Lederman, has a history of passionate child advocacy that includes standing up to state mandates she feels are wrong. Social workers and the court-appointed lawyer for the children credit Gill and his partner for taking boys from a background of drugs and abuse and raising thriving, happy, well-adjusted children.

“It has been publically reported my opinion is that the children should stay with the foster parents and be allowed to be adopted by them,” said Hilarie Bass, the children's court-appointed attorney.

A ruling in favor of a gay adoptive parent in Key West last month can't hurt.

“The fact that judges all over the state are looking a the scientific evidence and finding that gay parents serve just as well as straight parents for kids that really need it is heartening to us, said Robert Rosenwald Jr., a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union representing Gill and his partner.

Lawyers for the state and the Department of Children & Families declined to talk about the closed proceedings. They argued the position of the state that has the only blanket ban on same-sex couples from adopting.

"I'll just say I don't think the other 49 states can really be wrong, can they?" Gill said.

Some employees of the Department of Children & Families who were at the courthouse Wednesday said that despite their personal feelings on the state law, they are bound to argue for it in any state case.

The case is expected to last through the end of the week.