Some Florida families are rallying behind legislation that would lift the state's 30 year ban on gay people adopting children.

Advocates want a judge to determine whether such adoptions are in the child's best interest.

Cathy James has helped raise a seven-year-old boy since birth with the boy's biological mother.

She's afraid if her partner died unexpectedly, she wouldn’t be able to legally adopt the child she considers her son. “We don’t ask other kids in the state of Florida to do that, and [while] the state of Florida is trying to protect children [they are created] a class of second-class citizens and he is one of them and that’s not fair to him.”

The bill to lift the Gay Adoption Ban has not made it through the past several legislative sessions, but it has picked up additional support this year.