SLOVENIA: Voting on whether to allow gay couples to adopt children of their partners after a conservative group forces national referendum on the issue

Record ID: 277640

  • Title: SLOVENIA: Voting on whether to allow gay couples to adopt children of their partners after a conservative group forces national referendum on the issue
  • Date: 26th March 2012
  • Summary: LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA (MARCH 25, 2012) (REUTERS) CARS PASSING ON STREET IN FRONT OF KONGRESNI SQUARE, LJUBLJANA CASTLE IN BACKGROUND LJUBLJANA CASTLE PEOPLE WALKING IN PARK KAMNIK, SLOVENIA (MARCH 25, 2012) (REUTERS) MAN AND WOMAN ENTERING REFERENDUM POLLING STATION PEOPLE REGISTERING TO VOTE MIHA SORLN, PENSIONER FROM KAMNIK, GOING TO CAST BALLOT SORLN CASTING BALLOT
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Slovakia, Slovenia
  • City:
  • Country: Slovakia Slovenia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6FVPPWKJEAVBHGD8J47M2W78H
  • Story Text: Slovenians voted on Sunday (March 25) whether to allow gay couples to adopt the children of their partners after a conservative group forced a national referendum on the issue.
    The previous parliament, dominated by a centre-left coalition, passed a new family law in June 2011 but the Civil Initiative for Family and Children's Rights challenged it, arguing that homosexuals should not receive adoption rights.
    By February the group, which has the support of the Catholic Church, had collected the 42,000 signatures necessary for a national referendum.
    Opinion polls show voters are likely to narrowly endorse the law.
    Under the legislation, gay couples are allowed to adopt the children of their partners, although they do not have the right to adopt children from a third party. Conservative groups want it annulled, saying a homosexual couple cannot replace the role of father and mother for a child.
    "Children can be born only to a woman and a man couple, so only women who cannot have children should be able to adopt", pensioner Miha Sorlin said after casting his ballot.
    But another Kamnik resident, Tomaz Kramar was of a different opinion: "People nowadays understand family as some kind of a basic unit which can exist in many different forms. The important thing, as I see it it, is how it (family) influences a child and what it gives to a child in his process of growing up", he said.
    "It would be really good if this family law is passed so that all the children are treated in the same way", said Daliborka Lasic, 39-year-old lesbian who would like to adopt her partner Darja's four-month old baby girl.
    "So that they have equal rights, because now they don't," 38-year-old Darja said after casting her ballot in the town of Kamnik accompanied by her partner Daliborka and her daughter Neza.
    The small Adriatic country which joined the European Union in 2004 is relatively tolerant of homosexual couples, who have been able to formally register their relationship since 2006.
    The law envisages a special ombudsman for children's rights and is expected to speed up court processes on matters concerning children's rights. It also simplifies divorce for childless couples.
    A number of liberal civil groups support the law, claiming that it will enhance children's rights as it prohibits corporal punishment of children and envisages a special ombudsman for children's rights.
    Slovenians have rejected five laws in a row in referendums over the past 16 months, which paved the way for parliament to oust Prime Minister Borut Pahor's government in September.
    The present centre-right government of Prime Minister Janez Jansa, which took over last month, did not participate in the referendum campaign as coalition parties were divided on the law.
    A number of European Union members allow registration of gay relationships but only a few allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
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