Vendola slams 'hysterical' adoption row

(ANSA) - Bari, March 2 - Former Puglia governor Nichi Vendola said in an interview with Matrix talk show to be aired on Channel 5 Wednesday that the debate on stepchild adoption has become "hysterical". "I believe the reality is very simple," said the openly gay politician, founder of the small leftwing Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party, and new dad. "A couple with a child who is the biological child of one of the two partners, but whom both are raising - I believe it natural to safeguard their rights in case the biological father came to be missing, for whatever reason".
    The birth in California at the weekend of a little boy via an American surrogate mother for Vendola and his Canadian partner, Ed Testa, has fuelled a row in Italy over adoptions for members of the LGBT community.
    Tension over the issue of gays adopting children continued earlier this week even though a provision that would have allowed homosexuals to adopt their partners' biological children was stripped from a bill regulating civil unions the Senate approved last week.