Conservatives rally opposition to adoption for gay couples
German conservatives on Friday rejected German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries’ suggestion that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children. But gay rights advocates said current laws were contradictory.
“Children are best cared for by a man and woman. We don’t want total equality,” Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy parliamentary floor leader for Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told Cologne daily Stadt-Anzeiger.
His sentiments were echoed by Bavaria’s Social Welfare Minister Christine Haderthauer, a member of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU). She said the goal of adoption is for children to find an optimal family – including a father and mother.
“I still consider the assessment by lawmakers - that says the families of married couples can best provide optimal conditions for a child’s happiness - to be correct and appropriate,” Haderthauer told daily Passauer Neue Presse.
On Thursday Zypries cited a new German study showing children raised by gay parents were no different than those belonging to heterosexual couples, saying adoption law needed to reflect the reality of the modern German family.
“Where kids are loved they grow up fine and protected and have the necessary self-confidence to get by in the world,” Zypries told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, adding there was no difference if the parents were two men or two women.
Klaus Jetz, director of Gay and Lesbian Association of Germany, on Friday said the conservatives had to put aside their cultural opposition to homosexual families and acknowledge the study’s scientific findings that gays can be good parents.
“They’re desperately trying to find differences where there are none,” he told The Local. “But now they have to throw ideology overboard.”
He said German adoption law was riddled with inconsistencies – such as allowing an individual to adopt but not his or her gay partner – that needed to be ironed out. He also pointed to the conservatives as the only major party opposing such reforms.
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“Children are best cared for by a man and woman. We don’t want total equality,” Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy parliamentary floor leader for Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told Cologne daily Stadt-Anzeiger.
His sentiments were echoed by Bavaria’s Social Welfare Minister Christine Haderthauer, a member of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU). She said the goal of adoption is for children to find an optimal family – including a father and mother.
“I still consider the assessment by lawmakers - that says the families of married couples can best provide optimal conditions for a child’s happiness - to be correct and appropriate,” Haderthauer told daily Passauer Neue Presse.
On Thursday Zypries cited a new German study showing children raised by gay parents were no different than those belonging to heterosexual couples, saying adoption law needed to reflect the reality of the modern German family.
“Where kids are loved they grow up fine and protected and have the necessary self-confidence to get by in the world,” Zypries told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, adding there was no difference if the parents were two men or two women.
Klaus Jetz, director of Gay and Lesbian Association of Germany, on Friday said the conservatives had to put aside their cultural opposition to homosexual families and acknowledge the study’s scientific findings that gays can be good parents.
“They’re desperately trying to find differences where there are none,” he told The Local. “But now they have to throw ideology overboard.”
He said German adoption law was riddled with inconsistencies – such as allowing an individual to adopt but not his or her gay partner – that needed to be ironed out. He also pointed to the conservatives as the only major party opposing such reforms.
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