08.21.2008 6:18pm EDT
(Brasilia) Lawmakers in Brazil’s lower house of Congress Thursday stripped out portions of a new adoption bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt children.
Opponents of gay adoption said that because the country does not recognize same-sex unions it would be wrong to allow those couples to jointly adopt.Attempts to pass legislation giving gay and lesbian couples the same rights as married opposite-sex couples has been stalled in the Congress for more than 10 years.
Some states, however, have gone ahead and recognized gay couples.
In 2002, Buenos Aires legalized civil unions. Two years later, the state of Rio Grande do Sul passed similar legislation.
In 2006, a Sao Paulo state court allowed a gay couple to adopt a 5-year-old girl.
The adoption bill, without the same-sex provision, now returns to Brazil’s Senate for further debate.
The move to drop gay adoption came less than two months after President Luiz Inazio Lula da Silva called LGBT civil rights leaders to a precedent setting summit to discuss gay rights legislation and battling homophobia.
The meeting involved representatives from the president’s office, cabinet members and legislators.