German Debate over adoption rights for homosexuals heats up

Conservative politicians across Germany have lashed out at Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries' repeated demand that laws be changed to give homosexual couples the right to adopt children.

Christine Haderthauer, the minister for social affairs in the state of Bavaria, rejected the idea, telling the German daily Passauer Neue Presse that the goal of the adoption process is to find children an optimal family, and not the other way around.

Haderthauer was not the only one giving interviews to newspapers following Thursday's announcement. Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy head of the Christian Democrats (CDU) parliamentary group, sharply criticized the justice minister's demand.

"It has always been our belief that children are best off being raised by a man and a woman," he told the Ruhr Nachrichten, adding that there was no reason for them, not even when it came to adoption rights, to make civil unions equal to traditional marriages.

Adoption law favors married couples

When heterosexual couples in Germany tie the knot, they get married. When homosexual couples go to the justice of the peace, they enter into civil unions. What may seem to be a word game has far-reaching consequences.

As it is, gays and lesbians are allowed to adopt children in Germany, but only as individuals, not as a couple. That right is reserved for married couples, which means homosexuals, even if they have a civil union, are often passed over by agencies looking to place children in stable, loving homes.

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