Setback for Gay Adoption in Germany

Speaking at the Christian Socialist Union conference in the Bavarian town of Passau, party leader Stoiber, said he was concerned about the well-being of children being brought up by same-sex parents.

"The Red-Green coalition wants to give same-sex partners the right to adopt children," Stoiber said. "We will call on the German constitutional court to establish whether that is in keeping with our constitution."

He went on to dispute the ruling coalition's justification to legalise gay adoption on the grounds that almost a quarter of gay and lesbians in Germany wanted to have children.

"We are not talking here about self-realization of gays or lesbians," he said.

No equality

Stoiber (photo) stressed that "the discrimination of homosexual couples has to be consigned to history," but the CSU is opposed to granting homosexual couples equality with heterosexual relationships.

At the end of last year, the government approved amendments introduced by Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries to the partnership law of 2001 which first introduced "gay marriage" to Germany. If unthwarted by the Bavarian conservatives' plans to block the bill, it would allow homosexuals to adopt the biological child of their partner, if the other biological parent consents.

If the amendments are passed by parliament, gay and lesbian "registered couples" will enjoy most of the same rights and responsibilities heterosexual spouses do, including pension rights and financial support responsibilities in the event of separation. The governing Social Democratic-Green coalition also wants to introduce gay engagements, which would allow one partner to refuse to testify against the other in court.