Parliament signals to government for the first time that it is ready to give equal adoption rights to civil partnership and married couples
There has been a majority vote in parliament today to introduce a bill giving same-sex couples in registered partnerships the right to adopt. The proposal, from Civil Centre Party founder Simon Emil Ammitzbøll, would give partners registered in civil unions the right to adopt unrelated children both domestically and internationally.
Denmark currently allows individuals to adopt, regardless of sexual orientation, and for couples to adopt their partner’s existing children. The new proposal would allow same-sex couples to jointly petition for adoption.
This is the first time such a proposal has received a parliamentary majority. Six members of the government’s Liberal Party voted against their colleagues to give a 62-53 majority for the proposal. It signals that parliamentary members want the government to draft a bill granting equal adoption rights for civil partnership and married couples.Should the future bill be passed into law, Denmark will join the ranks of other Nordic countries including Iceland, Norway and Sweden in allowing equal adoption rights for couples.
However, the justice minister, Brian Mikkelsen, previously admitted that the proposal is more about equality on paper than in practicality.
‘We know that in the real world registered partners have trouble getting adoptive children and on the basis of that, from the government’s point of view, we see this as more of a signal policy,’ Mikkelsen told DR news back in December.
Figures from Statistics Denmark for 2007, show that of the 712 step-child adoptions, 103 were from couples in a registered partnership.
The majority of adoptions involving unrelated children tend to take place abroad, making it difficult for Danish same-sex couples to do so, as many countries will not allow homosexual adoption. In 2007 429 children, unrelated to those adopting them, were adopted from abroad.
‘Now we are seeing the theoretical possibility that same-sex couples can adopt children from abroad,’ said Ammitzbøll.