Lesbians Child Must Be Adopted By Lesbian Family

[Lee]

(London) Social workers have told a British court that two children must only be adopted by a lesbian couple because their birth mother was in a same-sex relationship.

Social services workers at Greenwich Council in South-East London told the court that the children should immediately be returned to the same "environment" that they experienced as infants.

For the past year the young boy and girl have been living with heterosexual foster parents. The reason the children came into the care of the council has not been revealed.

Social workers told a Family Proceedings Court judge that the situation is similar to that of a child of black or Jewish parents who should be adopted into a family of the child's racial or cultural background.

Court was told that at least two lesbian couples are prepared to take the children.

An application by the straight foster care couple who have been looking after the children is being fought by the social survives agency, a division of the borough council.

The judge in the case has not indicated when a ruling might come. Meanwhile, conservatives accuse the child protection workers of political correctness gone wrong.

Hugh McKinney of the National Family Campaign said: "It is an insult to decent, caring heterosexual parents throughout the country who would like to adopt."

Britain has seen an explosion in gay adoption since it became legal 18 months ago. In some parts of the country, rates have reached one in six of adoptions.

http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/08/082304ukAdopt.htm

So whats your take on this? Are the Social Services going above and beyond their realm?

Should it matter whether a child is adopted by a lesbian or straight couple? Surely the most important issue is that the child goes to a loving family here?

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

Interesting problem. I can see where there is an obvious cultural difference that you would want the child reared by similiar folk, but how do you know if a child is gay or not before hand? I mean obviously if they were born jewish or black or such, you'd have an argument, but in this instance... not sure...

personally i'd say go with who can provide the best love & care for the children but then without knowing why the children were removed to begin with kind of clouds the issue...

for example, did the straight couple degrade the biological mother because of her orientation? In which case I'd say they shouldn't get the kids... or was there other reasons?

[basschick]

why not simply have a "gay friendly" couple adopt the child? but in this kind of case, i'd say social services should have a couple visits with the child a month and six months after adoption just in case...

simply being gay doesn't guarantee the same environment. people's habits and lifestyles will always be different from one another.