A Miami appeals court waded into a realm traditionally occupied by social scientists Wednesday morning during arguments over Florida's 32-year-old law banning adoption by gay men and lesbians.

Just as Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman had done last fall, a three-judge panel of the Third District Court of Appeal sought to make sense of decades-worth of psychological and sociological research on the fitness of gay men and women to adopt.

The panel -- Judges Gerald B. Cope Jr., Frank A. Shepherd and Vance E. Salter -- will decide the fate of two half-brothers who say they want to be adopted by the foster father who has raised them since 2004. The foster father, Martin Gill of North Miami, cannot adopt under state law because he is gay.

Florida is the only state that excludes all gay men and lesbians from adopting, though it allows gay and lesbian foster parents. Last year, voters in Arkansas passed a measure forbidding adoption by single people after a court there dismissed a state rule excluding gay people from fostering children.

The oral arguments were held at Florida International University's law school, which is close to the appeals court, because the usual courtroom is being remodeled. FIU's courtroom was filled Wednesday with observers, professors and law students hoping to get a glimpse of what could become a historic decision.

At issue: whether Florida's ban on adoption by gay people, passed by lawmakers in 1977, serves a ``rational'' purpose in protecting children -- or is simply a vestige of decades-old bigotry toward gay people, as lawyers for Gill and the two children allege.

Under questioning by the panel, Timothy D. Osterhaus, deputy solicitor general for Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, said there was ample evidence presented at trial that gay men and women suffer disproportionately from a variety of social ills, such as mental illness and substance abuse.

``There is evidence that homosexuals have higher reates of mental disorders, suicide rates and domestic violence,'' Osterhaus said in response to questioning by Shepherd. ``This is a plausible rational.''

Lawyers for Gill and his two foster children, though, said Lederman was right in declaring there little ``credible'' evidence to support the notion that gay men and lesbians are unfit to parent.

One of the state's two experts, in fact, acknowledged that decisions over fitness should be made on a case-by-case basis, said Elliot H. Scherker, who was representing the two boys, identified in court records only as John and James Doe in order to protect their privacy. The other expert acknowledged he based his opposition to gay adoption largely on religious grounds.

``It is unconstitutional to deny rights based on arbitrary reasons,'' Scherker said. ``The only reason for denial was that their father was a gay man.''

Legal experts say the dispute will ultimately be decided by the Florida Supreme Court.

Last November, Lederman declared Florida's ban on adoption by gay men and lesbians unconstitutional, rejecting the state's claims.

Her ruling marked the second time that year that a South Florida judge declared the law unconstitutional.

In August, Monroe County Circuit Judge David John Audlin Jr. permitted another gay man to adopt, declaring that the 1977 gay adoption ban arose out of ``unveiled expressions of bigotry'' when the state was experiencing a severe backlash to demands for civil rights by gay people in Miami. Audlin's ruling was not appealed.

Lederman's ruling allowed Gill, who has been in a long-term relationship with a partner, to adopt the two brothers.

Lederman's 31-page ruling parsed 30 years' worth of psychological and sociological research on child-rearing and sexuality. She concluded that studies overwhelmingly have shown that gay people can parent as effectively as straight people and do no harm to their children.

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