A Rome court on Friday approved
the first adoption of a child by a gay couple in Italy.
The girl is the biological child of one of two lesbians, a
professional couple.
It was the first Italian instance of stepchild adoption.
Italy does not recognize other civil rights of gay couples
living together, unlike the laws in some other countries.
The couple, who have been together for 10 years, conceived
their five-year-old daughter through an assisted fertility
procedure in an unspecified European location, their lawyer
Maria Antonia Pili said.
She said Italy's laws are based on finding what is best for
the child and the best possible family situation in any adoption
case.
A gay rights organization called Friday's ruling "very
beautiful" and good news for the family in question.
Franco Grillini, president of Gaynet, said that thousands
of children of homosexual couples have suffered when the death
of a biological parent has torn the child away from the parent's
gay partner.
Rainbow Families, representing gay and transgender
families, said the ruling broke "taboos".
However, Maurizio Sacconi, Senate leader for the New Centre
Right (NCD) political party, denounced the "irresponsibility" of
the courts, suggesting the ruling contradicts what he called the
will of parliament in restraining the rights of same-sex
couples.
In contrast Sergio Lo Giudice, a Senator with the
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said the court ruling is
showing parliament the direction it should take in lawmaking.
Lo Giudice called the decision "another humiliation for a
parliament deaf and blind to the fundamental rights of
individuals, a wonderful day of civilization for our country".
This Rome court ruling follows a decision by the country's
high Cassation Court which, in January 2013, approved adoption
by gay couples where one partner is the parent of the child in
question so long as authorities determine there is no threat to
the child's development.
That high court ruling involved the 2011 case of a Muslim
immigrant couple in Brescia where the mother of a young son had
left her male partner for a lesbian relationship.
The boy's father argued that was an unhealthy arrangement
for the child, but the Cassation Court disagreed, saying that it
required much more proof of a detrimental environment than the
mere fact the mother was in a gay relationship.
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