While America Moves Backwards, Other Countries Progress
December 6, 2005: It makes me sad that while five states in America are considering anti-gay adoption bans, other countries are institutionalizing freedom and progress. This is from the BBC:
Belgium backs gay adoption plans
Belgian MPs have backed plans to allow adoption by gay couples, two years after legalising same-sex marriage.
The lower house of Belgium’s parliament voted 77-62 in favour of the measure, which must also pass the upper house. If fully approved, Belgium will become the third EU country, after Sweden and Spain, to allow same-sex adoption.
The law will grant gay couples in Belgium the same rights as heterosexual couples, allowing them to adopt children from anywhere in the world. Two years ago, Belgium voted to approve same-sex marriage, with an estimated 5,000 ceremonies held since then.
A string of other European countries also allow gay marriage or full civil rights, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and other Scandinavian nations. Britain will legalise “civil partnerships” this month.
I thought America was supposed to be bringing freedom to the rest of the world. So, why would my family enjoy greater liberty and more legal protections in Britain, Belguim, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, etc? When do we get some of that tasty freedom goodness over here?
December 15th, 2005 at 1:30 am
Hey Scott - Greetings from England! Love the show - it is a great source of information about adoption, the highs and lows that the process can bring. Well, in Britain like you have pointed out we now have Civil Partnerships but we are still a long way from being accepted. This step forward does make the challenge of living within a heterosexual dominate society easier but there is still a large amount of homophobeia, and other unexceptable views (racism, sexism, et al.) that takes place in our country. And even wtih the new Civil Partnership there is still a large amount of right wing, religiously driven hatred being broadcasted in the media. I guess we have to wait and see what happens on December 21st when the first Civil Partnerships will be made official to see if the world really does come to an end due to the degradation of marriage!! Okay - going on a bit now… I hope I made sense!!!
Love the show, love Sasha and you have really given my partner and I the incentive to seriously consider adoption. A friend of mine (staight with two children) even offered me her womb today for surragacy! But I think adoption would be more appropriate for us. I would appreciate some views in a future podcast on how to go about telling parents of LGBT that you are considering adopting, and your own experience of course.
Keep up the good work!
Nat
December 15th, 2005 at 1:51 am
Nat,
What a great note! Thanks so much for writing!