What ever happened to...?
June 25, 2008 12:47 PM Subscribe
What ever happened to the lethimstay.com family?
This came up in conversation with a colleague. Remember the Florida gay couple (Lofton and Cocteau, I think) who had fostered a child since he was an infant but the child became adoptable (by virtue of testing HIV-) and feared losing him? They had a website lethimstay.com that's gone now. Anyone know what happened to them and their kids?
This came up in conversation with a colleague. Remember the Florida gay couple (Lofton and Cocteau, I think) who had fostered a child since he was an infant but the child became adoptable (by virtue of testing HIV-) and feared losing him? They had a website lethimstay.com that's gone now. Anyone know what happened to them and their kids?
Response by poster: Thanks, Alison for the link! - interesting that Florida allowed him to foster with another gay couple. I also wonder what heppened to Bert, the other boy born with HIV and the rest of the family.
posted by pointystick at 1:47 PM on June 25, 2008
posted by pointystick at 1:47 PM on June 25, 2008
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Two years ago, Hudson and Niedwiecki became foster parents to Franke Alexandre, a teen born with HIV.
Alexandre had been one of five siblings raised by foster parents Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, a couple who with Rosie O'Donnell's help unsuccessfully fought Florida's gay adoption ban. (State law doesn't prohibit gay people from being foster parents.)
When the Lofton-Croteau family moved to Oregon, Florida demanded Alexandre return or he'd lose his medical coverage and college assistance.
''I was moving from one friend's house to another,'' recalls Alexandre, who lived with Lofton and Croteau from the age of 8 months. ``The change, the big move, was mentally stressful.''
Niedwiecki is a friend of Alexandre's guardian ad litem. He and Hudson offered to become the teen's new foster family.
''I was accepted into Anthony and Waymon's household,'' Alexandre said. ``My grades got better, more A's and B's than C's and D's. I was just beginning to get back on my feet. I would never have done it without them. They did whatever they could to help me get through school successfully and find the right college.''
Alexandre, 19, now lives on Florida's west coast and attends St. Petersburg College.
''I couldn't have learned a lot of lessons if I hadn't been living with Anthony and Waymon,'' he said. ``I love them dearly. They are family as much to me as I am family to them. A good couple of guys.''
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posted by Alison at 1:37 PM on June 25, 2008