Not that long, if they’re admitted to the EU.
Forget the qualities of the atmosphere–I think they’re more concerned that he’s not even going to be inside of its boundaries. Elton John is, after all, a rocket man. Hell, he straight-up admits that “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.”
If the decision is between staying in an orphanage and being adopted by a loving family, there are few things that would cause me, personally, to deny an adoption. That goes especially for children, like this one who is HIV positive, who have very little prospects for being adopted by someone else.
At the end of the day, you err on the side of compassion.
Or maybe there were concerns he was just another celebrity adopting a kid as a fashion accessory, a la Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Mia Farrow, etc.
But seriously, are there no HIV+ orphans in the UK he could adopt?
Personally I think he should’ve been turned down for another reason: rich people should not be allowed to adopt.
I mean, please, he’s just gonna hand the kid off to a nanny or something. Shouldn’t the nanny’s qualifications be the primary focus of the vetting process?
Ditto all around. In fact he’s upped it: “I’ll see your Third World orphan and raise you HIV…”. (Announcer: to stay in the game Madonna must adopt a Bosnian amputee or Rwandan triplets.)
Also, I understand his irritation, but if he’s sincere then surely there are HIV children in Atlanta (or London or L.A.- where does Elton live at the moment?) who could use an adoptive or even foster parents.
Plus frankly I’m not that sure I’d allow Elton to adopt a child. He’s 62 with a decades long history of periodic drug abuse, major financial problems (due to serious impulse control- his multimillion dollar shopping sprees while owing tens of millions are famous), and temper tantrums.
Not really. Different countries within the EU have different laws regarding same sex couples. In some countries you can marry your same sex partner, in others you can have a civil partnership and in still others, you can have neither.
So whether or not the Ukraine joins the EU is immaterial, because they’ll still be making their own minds up about whether or not you can marry or civilly unite with your same sex partner. It might be that their laws on it remian the same, because there is no requirement for it as a stipulation of EU membership.
There probably isn’t such a place.
In Spain a marriage can’t be entered into by people who wouldn’t be able to enter into one in their own country; that is, two gay Americans for example wouldn’t be able to get married (as the country does not recognize SSM) but two gay Norwegians would be able to. Mind you, it also applies to someone who’d be underage for marriage in his/her own country but of legal age in Spain, it isn’t restricted to SSM.
Other jurisdictions probably have similar limits.
Canada has no such restrictions. Neither do the American states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, or Vermont. California didn’t during the window when it allowed SSM. I don’t think South Africa has any restrictions on foreigners getting married there either.
And since Mr. Furnish is Canadian born, they’d be cool even if there were such a restriction here. But how many honk’n ceremonies do they have to go through to placate the world at large, anyhow?
Didn’t the ECHR mandate civil partnerships fairly recently?
Um, those guys are awful old. Have they thought about how old they’ll be if their kid lives long enough to graduate from high school?
“Oh, you must be ever so proud of your great-grandchild!”
I don’t believe people should be allowed to adopt a child once they reach 40 to 45 years of age. I believe that people should be at least 25 years old before they have to face the likelihood of their parent(s) dying, and when people have kids at the age of 60 or 70 or whatever, they are virtually dooming their child to lose his or her parent at a very early age. Think of Michael Jackson’s daughter. Who’d want to deliberately inflict that on a child? IMO, it’s very selfish and uncaring to seek parenthood at that age.
Oh, pooh. Would you rather have parents for 15 years or not at all?
That’s fine as an idea, but life has a way of throwing the best-laid plans out the window. I didn’t even meet the woman who would become my wife until I was 43 years old, so obviously that was the youngest possible age for me to become a father. And I definitely wanted children.
Nope.
Some friends of mine, a gay couple, adopted a pair of twin boys from the Ukraine a couple of years ago. And they were not married.
All that meant, they said, was that the bribes they had to pay were a bit higher than the going rate.
No. He stopped doing all drugs (including drinking) when Ryan White died.
Did Rocket Man tell you that? 
(Pssst – listen to the song and then read my post again)
Lib – that’s good to know.
Starving Artists – maybe for adopting infants, but what about adopting older children? They’re the ones who are especially in need of parents, because most people want babies.
Its kind of a shame - that’s what gets adoption programs closed down is when agencies help people “bend” the official rules.
Yeah, the official rules suck - gay people should be able to adopt. But if you can get around them via bribery, you are in the baby selling business and in violation of the Hague Conventions. And the U.S. State Department will shut down the program - usually while a lot of expectant parents are waiting - leaving them in limbo while the situation is investigated.