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17 February 2004
MADRID – A political row blew up Tuesday after a judge ruled a lesbian couple had the right to legally adopt two female twins.
In a landmark decision, the lesbian couple – who are the biological parents of the children – have been granted the legal rights to adopt them.
The two women, aged 38 and 42, have been living together in Pamplona, Navarra, north-west Spain, since 1999 and have been a couple for seven years. They had the twins through artificial insemination.
The decision, in a court in Navarra, has brought condemnation from the Church and the Right but support from left-wing parties and gay groups.
Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, secretary and spokesman of the Episcopal Conference of Spain, said the case “showed no respect for the rights of a child to have a father and mother”.
The ruling conservative Popular Party has claimed that the law under which the judge made the decision was “unconstitutional”.
The main opposition parties and gay groups have supported the decision.
Leire Pajn, of the socialist PSOE party, said: “This is very important for equality. The sentence contributes to normalise life and guarantees rights for many boys and girls born and educated in the families of homosexuals.”
Pajn congratulated gay and lesbian groups for this change which will help them secure their rights.
The left-wing IU party also supported the decision.
In a statement, one of their candidates, who has stood as president of the Collective of Gays and Lesbians in Madrid, said it was a “real advance and a social revolution”.
He said it would recognise the equality of gay and lesbian parents.
“The laws had to change to allow the equality of all the minorities,” he added.
The district attorney involved in the case explained Tuesday his decision not to appeal against the decision because it would oppose the law of unmarried couples in Navarra.
Angel Santiago Ruiz explained that if he had opposed the application it would have been transferred to the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, he said that neither the regional parliament nor the conservative ruling Popular Party – which has claimed it was unconstitutional – could appeal.
He said that the law said that stable couples, independent of their sexual orientation, are defined as a union if they are adults and have been living together for at least a year.
In this case, the lesbian couple had been together for seven years were the biological parents of the two twins who were conceived by artificial insemination.
The regional government in Catalonia is considering reforming the law in the province to allow gay couples to adopt.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
Subject: Spanish news