Good news for LGBT parents in Europe:
The European Court of Human Rights ruled last week that France acted illegally by preventing a single lesbian from adopting a child. Some say the ruling could stop countries throughout Europe from refusing approval to an unmarried person because of her or his sexual orientation.
Britain’s House of Lords approved legislation granting new parenting rights to same-sex couples. Female civil partners will both be recognized as parents of a child conceived through assisted reproduction, and male partners may apply to become parents of a child conceived through a surrogacy arrangement. The bill will now return to the Commons for further approval.
Of course, LGBT parents in the U.S. are cautioned to do adoptions even when their states recognize their parenting rights without one, to ensure other states and countries will honor them as well. It will be interesting to see whether British same-sex parents will need to do the same before traveling to the States. Fun with international law!
5:57 pm
Politics and Law
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lula
on Jan 23rd, 2008
@ 10:10 am:
Per definition it should not be a problem. On the child’s passport you would be indicated as the parent, so I can’t see how they could ignore that.
As it is, we are waiting for baby number two to start the adoption process (in Belgium), given that both sets of grandparents have to be interviewed. As that involves a lot of registered letters to the US, we thought it would be better to wait.
My SO does travel with a document though that states that she is the guardian of my child. Simply issued at our town hall at no extra cost.
Mombian » Blog Archive » Weekly Political Roundup
on Jan 25th, 2008
@ 5:38 pm:
[...] a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that said people are entitled to adopt regardless of sexual orientation, the governments of Latvia [...]