Belgium Going the Way of Europe, Pro-Family Groups Saying No to Same-Sex Adoption

Belgium pro-family groups are organizing to protest government's project to legalize same-sex adoptions. News sources are reporting there is going to be an organized protests this coming Saturday in Brussels.

As a PBS story reports, a September 2003 annual report on so-called "human rights issues" in the European Union, the EU recommended that it's members give same-sex couples the right to both marry and adopt children, which went against Belgium's law banning same-sex adoption. Belgium does allow same-sex marriages already.

Belgium followed quickly on the heels of the Dutch decision, legalizing gay marriage in January 2003. The decision gave married gay couples similar rights to heterosexual married couples.

While the marriage law initially only allowed couples from countries where gay marriage was legal to marry in Belgium, this stipulation was lifted in February 2004, allowing non-Belgian couples to marry as long as one partner lives in or is a regular visitor to the country.

Belgium's adoption laws, however, prevent gay couples from adopting a child. For lesbian couples, a child's biological mother is considered to be the child's sole parent, while the other partner is not granted a legal parental role.

In a September 2003 annual report on human rights issues in the European Union, the European Parliament recommended that the 15 member states grant homosexuals the right to marry and adopt; this recommendation may begin to affect, among other things, Belgium's laws banning homosexual adoption.

To be expected, and thankfully, Belgium's Catholic bishops made clear their opposition to the government's plans to legalize same-sex adoption.

"This perspective is profoundly worrying to us," the bishops conference said in a statement. "In the current context, such a measure would only strengthen the idea that homosexual couples are a simple derivative of couples consisting of a man and a woman."

The march organizers, Comité Actie Gezin/Action Famille points out what everyone seems to ignore--the mounting evidence and research that points out to a child's need for both a father and a mother, and how these laws ignore the wellbeing of the child. The fact is that same-sex adoptions is more about liberal ideologies and social experimentation, than seeking what is best for these children. They would be better of in an orphanage type setting with a "house" father and mother, and a caring staff.

“It further rejects the mounting evidence of the adverse psychological burden imposed to a child raised by same-sex parents. This endeavor is obviously not in the best interest of the child.”

The organizers of the march have secured the support of the Spanish Forum for the Family, the same group I blogged about that was behind the March for the Family in Madrid. That protest drew hundreds of thousands last June.

“Considering the unprecedented manifestation for the family in Spain last June, the organizers of this march hope to also gather a large crowd to signal that legalization of same-sex adoption should not be propagated in Belgium or in other EU Member States,” the organizers said.

“You are invited to participate to the march for the family that will take place on September 10th 2005, at 2:30pm at the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels.” A website has been created for this purpose: http://www.actiegezin-actionfamille.be

Comité Actie Gezin/Action Famille has also initiated an online petition available on their website to denounce the proposed legislation. http://www.actiegezin-actionfamille.be/FR/Petition...

The main subject that SHOULD be discussed here is the rights of the children involved. As Lola Velarde, president of the Institute of Family Policies, indicates, this is just part of a larger movement to take away the rights of children, and to ignore scientific evidence regarding same-sex adoption. He is quotes in Zenit.org.

"It is outrageous that in 21st-century Europe they want to do away with the rights of children, turning their backs on society and on the scientific community which has stated that the adoption of children by homosexual couples has had harmful effects for minors," said Velarde.

Children's rights

According to Carine Brochier, one of the demonstration's organizers, "there is no right of adoption. There is only an adoption procedure in favor of a child, who has the right to be born and to grow in the heart of a family made up of a father and a mother.

"This guarantees that the child will have a minimum of well-being and the most balanced surroundings possible, ensuring an optimal emotional, psychological and social development."

The Belgian bishops' conference released a statement that supports the event and encourages the public "to live this initiative as a serene gesture in favor of the family, one of the pillars of our society."

Here is a full story from Zenit.org

Tags: Adoption, Current events, politics, News, Gar Marriage, same sex adoption