Gays and lbians n now adopt stepchildren - Expati Swzerland

* gay adoption switzerland *

Swzerland agreed to legalize civil marriage and the right to adopt children for same-sex upl by a nearly two-thirds majory a referendum on Sunday, makg one of the last untri Wtern Europe to legalise gay marriage. * gay adoption switzerland *

LGBT Rights Swzerland: homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * gay adoption switzerland *

The Swiss parliament has voted to allow gay upl to adopt each other's children. However, the motn passed the Hoe of Reprentativ on Thursday was not as liberal as the origal versn approved by the Senate. The Senate had approved a motn grantg adoptn rights regardls of maral stat or sexual orientatn, as long as the arrangement was the bt optn for the child qutn. However, the Hoe of Reprentativ altered the motn – specifyg that a homosexual uld only adopt the child of his or her partner. In Swzerland, gay upl a registered partnership are not allowed to adopt children. However, Swiss law perms a sgle gay man or lbian woman to do so. This peculiar suatn – which sentially punish upl who have ma a formal legal mment to each other – is what sparked gay rights’ groups to ask legislators to amend the law. Thursday’s velopments were wele news to homosexuals terted adoptg their step-children and gag proper parental rights. However, gay rights groups will ntue to ph for full adoptn rights. In Swzerland is timated that there are several thoand children growg up hom head by same-sex upl. * gay adoption switzerland *

Swzerland is behd the tim and other untri when to gay adoptn rights, mpaigner Moël Volken tells Volken is spokman for the Fay Chanc associatn which has jt hand a petn to parliament llg for gay upl to be granted the same adoptn rights as heterosexual married on. He says around 6,000 children are part of rabow fai. But currently gay upl registered partnerships are not allowed to adopt a child, nor is one partner allowed to adopt the child of the other. The petn, which lls for a change to the law and attracted 19,390 signatur, will now be nsired by a parliamentary mtee. How would the law change work practice? Moël Volken: For stance, a iend of me a woman has a baby. She asked me to take re of the child if she died. Now the suatn is the followg: if she di, I n adopt a child on the ndn that I don’t register my partnership. If I have registered my partnership, I would have to dissolve first. This don’t help anybody and is a disadvantage for the child. In our mtee we have a uple, both women, who each have a child. They are registered partners and would like to be the parents of both children, but at prent this is not possible. That means if one of them di, one of the children would be whout parents. The child has no guarantee that he or she n ntue to grow up wh her brother and her [other] mother bee the law don’t regnise [registered partners] as parents, they are nsired strangers. When people talk about gay upl, rabow fai, and adoptn they always thk of a male uple who go somewhere and obta a child. That’s not the aim of the petn. So the ia is to regulate this existg suatn and to give more equaly to registered partnerships? M.V.: To give children growg up registered partnership the same chanc as children growg up married upl. There wouldn’t be a big number of the kd of adoptns a year, around ten-20. It’s always the same scenar - if only a few people don’t have the right whout any reason, then you have to change the suatn. How do the suatn Swzerland pare wh other untri? M.V.: I love the example of Spa. Spa, the same month as the Swiss adopted the registered partnership law, allowed gay marriage and two weeks later the law, [cludg the right to adopt] entered to force. In Swzerland we had not really marriage, but somethg smaller, wh the exprs excln of adoptn and took two years to e to force. I pare the suatn wh women’s votg rights when we were 50 years later [than everyone else] and seems that Swzerland lik to repeat the same story wh same sex upl and their children. If you look at Bra, Swen and the Netherlands, most untri of parable culture Europe have adopted a gay adoptn law as well as Spa, one of the Mederranean untri which ually keep more distance to same sex upl. In Swzerland, the big parti, the Christian Democrats and the Radils, don’t dare to touch the subject. They prefer to look away. A survey missned by gay groups found a majory of the populatn support of gay adoptn Swzerland. M.V.: The rult was that 86.3 per cent agreed that the legal suatn Swzerland ought to be changed favour of rabow fai, and that’s credible. And even 53 per cent clared themselv favourable to or pletely for adoptn rights. Is this a change of attu? M.V.: Y, bee the last numbers I saw were om 2001 or 2002 wh 36 per cent for adoptn. Registered partnerships is one reason for the change and the other is that the Swiss media has reported wily the past three year on rabow fai and gay adoptns … they were quicker than the Swiss gay movement alg wh the subject. There is some opposn to the petn. The Prottant Party has issued a statement sayg that every child has a right to a mother and a father. M.V.: I don’t know how a child uld have a right to a mother and father. If was really a right then I would say, for example, you have to prohib divorce. It’s a realy that there are many children who grow up for some reason only wh only one parent or a patchwork fay... We should ensure that every child fds a safe, good place and this uld also be wh a same-sex uple. The party also claimed that gay adoptn uld be harmful for children’s velopment. M.V.: I agree wh them that ually is bt for the child is to grow up wh s blogil parents but I e back to my pot, what do you do the event of divorce or accint, and what about children adopted by heterosexual upl, they also grow up whout blogil parents?… The most important thg is that the people who re for children really love them… and there are different scientific studi that say the sexual posn of the uple a child grows up wh don’t play an important role. Isobel Leybold-Johnson, Statistics An timated 6,000 children are growg up wh gay parents Swzerland, most of them wh two mothers. Almost half the children e om earlier, heterosexual relatnships. The others were born to rabow fai through fertily treatments or an agreement volvg lbian women and heterosexual or homosexual male iends. Moël Volken expects that a change to the adoptn law would only rult 10-20 adoptns a year by gap upl. The petn It lls for: Equaly between same sex upl and married upl terms of parental rights and adoptn. The same legal equaly for children growg up a registered partnership as for children growg up wh a married uple. An adoptn law that tak to nsiratn the terts and wellbeg of the child rather than the civil stat and sexual orientatn of the person or uple wantg to adopt. It will now be nsired by a parliamentary mtee. It may ci jt to “take note” of and the procs would stop there, Moël Volken says. Or will be remend for discsn parliament. Two parliamentarians are also filg a motn on the issue. The petn anisers have left up to parliament to ci how the issue should be addrsed. * gay adoption switzerland *