# Nobody expects the Spanish gay adoption! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 22, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641 "2005-04-22T17:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/1 "2005-04-22T17:40:07Z")
[Pope Rat I’s against it, of course.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4473001.stm) (In other headlines, sun rises in east; bear shits in woods.) But it would be pretty cool for there to be one entire European country where gays were legally regarded as just plain normal. > [@](#): > > Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage between homosexuals. > > The bill, passed by parliament’s Socialist-dominated lower house, also allows gay couples to adopt. > > A senior Vatican official described the bill - which is likely to become law within a few months - as iniquitous. > > He said Roman Catholic officials should be prepared to lose their jobs rather than co-operate with the law. > > The bill would make Spain the first European country to allow homosexual people to marry and adopt children. > > Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. It is also a dramatic step in the rapid secularisation of what was once one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/2 "2005-04-22T17:45:20Z")
It’s good that you opened this thread. Here we can praise the Spanish for being all cool and stuff. [Here in the Pit](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=313239) we can give Benny the comments he deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Arwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Arwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arwin)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/3 "2005-04-22T18:09:12Z")
Actually, when the Netherlands opened up marraige for gay couples in 2001, that included the right of adoption of a child from the Netherlands. So you don’t have to wait until Spain gets there … 😉 (But of course it’d be awesome if they did!) We recently discussed whether we should make this something global, to which the responsible minister replied that additional countries may be added to the list as soon as there are any additional countries that allow adoption by a foreign gay couple. Note that our parliament received a letter from 80 university professors warning us of the terrible consequences to not just the Netherlands but the whole world of messing with the institution of marriage. It would create a global confusion that would lead to a terrible moral/cultural decline or something. Jeez. :rolleyes: Obviously that didn’t stop us, but I imagine that it’s partly for this reason that we’re careful about including other countries in our jurisdiction. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/4 "2005-04-22T18:10:24Z")
any country that gives us Antonio Banderas is cool in my book. They just got cooler with this . ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/5 "2005-04-22T18:38:08Z")
FWIW, adoption by same-sex couples is already available in Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, and the Basque Country. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/6 "2005-04-22T18:50:28Z")
And adoption by a single person, country-wide. You know, I just noticed, but the same area that already allows adoption by same-sex couples is the area that’s traditionally been less sexist (for example, allowing a woman to sell and buy land at the same age as a man, when in the rest she would never be able to do it and need a tutor her whole life). There’s probably some relationship somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/7 "2005-04-22T21:19:07Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > [quoting the bbc] > Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. I do not think this means what you think it means. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/8 "2005-04-22T21:43:22Z")
From the look of it, either Catholic people there have been “los[ing] their jobs” over the issue for some time or - shocker here - not EVERYONE thinks as Ratzinger does. Fortunately, excommunication is not so much the bother it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Arwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Arwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arwin)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/9 "2005-04-22T22:00:16Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > I do not think this means what you think it means. Not often that I’ve caught the BBC on an oversight (or incompleteness) like that. Reading a Dutch site, I found another country: Adoptie Samen met de openstelling van het huwelijk is op 1 april 2001 de adoptiewetgeving gewijzigd. Twee mannen of twee vrouwen kunnen sinds die datum een kind in Nederland adopteren. Adoptie van een kind uit het buitenland is niet mogelijk door paren van hetzelfde geslacht. De reden hiervoor is dat uit een enquete onder landen die als landen van herkomst voor Nederland belangrijk zijn, gebleken is dat die landen niet geconfronteerd willen worden met adoptieverzoeken van paren van gelijk geslacht. Het gebrek aan bereidheid van landen van herkomst om kinderen beschikbaar te stellen voor adoptie door paren van hetzelfde geslacht, maakt de adoptiewens voor deze paren vooralsnog onvervulbaar. Inmiddels is interne homoadoptie in Zuid-Afrika als gevolg van een wetswijziging in 2003 mogelijk. Meaning: Adoption Together with opening up marriage, april 1st 2001 saw a change in the adoption laws. From that date, two men or two women can adopt a child in the Netherlands. Adoption of a child from other countries is not possible by same-sex couples. The reason for this is that a questionnaire among those countries that are important sources for adopted children for the Netherlands revealed that these countries do not want to be confronted by requests for adoption by same-sex couples. This unwillingness to offer up children for adoption to same-sex couples renders adoption out of reach for same-sex couples. **Meanwhile, in South-Africa gay couples can adopt children from within the country also, due to a change of law in 2003.** (bold and quick-and-dirty translation mine) ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/10 "2005-04-23T01:33:54Z")
apologies to William Goldman Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You are gay and married. Prepare to adopt. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/11 "2005-04-23T02:00:32Z")
And what, precisely, is the meaning of “iniquitous”? Does it mean what I think it means? :: checks dictionary :: Hmm. Means simply ‘unjust’ or ‘wicked’. (Collins English Dictionary). I felt sure it meant that it was specifically vulnerable, if that’s the right word, to the Inquisition… ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/12 "2005-04-23T03:06:02Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > apologies to William Goldman > > Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You are gay and married. Prepare to adopt. > 😃 OMG!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Does this mean that only Homersexuals will be allowed to adopt?!!1111!!! Sure, these kids will be well dressed and color coordinated, but…hey…wait a second!!! :::looks down at the flood victim clothing I have on::::: :dubious: I want to be adopted by a gay couple!! Next on Springer!! I like show tunes and can dance well. Also toilet trained and sailed through that awkward teenage phase long ago. No braces required either. Any interested Queers looking to adopt an older child , my email is in my profile. [size=1] Note to humor impaired gays out there. Please don’t take offense to this and sashay over to my house and \*critique \* it’s glaring decorator issues. You’ll make baby Chluthulu cry. \* ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-expects-the-spanish-gay-adoption/300641/13 "2005-04-23T04:38:23Z")
> [@Arwin](#): > > We recently discussed whether we should make this something global, to which the responsible minister replied that additional countries may be added to the list as soon as there are any additional countries that allow adoption by a foreign gay couple. Several Canadian provinces allowed adoption by gay couples prior to the cases legalising gay marriage. I don’t think it’s uniform throughout Canada, but certainly in some jurisdictions a gay couple can adopt without having to be married.