A Milan appeals court on
Thursday ruled valid a lesbian woman's adoption in Spain of her
ex-wife's daughter, and ordered the adoption transcribed in
Italy.
The two Italian women started a relationship in 1999, then
one of them had the child through a donor in 2003.
They married in Spain, and the spouse who did not give
birth legally adopted the child before the couple divorced two
years ago.
The sentence represents one of the first cases in Italy
recognising so-called stepchild adoption, or adoption by one
partner in a same-sex couple of the other's biological child.
Italy still lacks a civil unions or gay marriage law, so
births to same-sex married couples are not officially
recognized.
In July, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy
for failing to provide legal "recognition and protection" for
gay couples, and said it must remedy the situation by changing
its laws.
Premier Matteo Renzi's government is preparing a civil
unions bill that would give same-sex couples many of the same
rights and responsibilities as straight married couples,
including the right to adopt their spouse's children and for
widows to receive their deceased partners' pensions and inherit
their property.
However, the traditionally Catholic center right, as well
as Catholic elements within the center-left, are not happy with
the plans, and are against recognising the rights of gays in
committed relationships to be parents.
This, they argue, will inevitably usher in the legalization
of surrogate motherhood, which is illegal in Italy and which the
Catholic Church condemns as a sin.
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