The mother and family of two little boys have launched a bid to keep them from being adopted by a homosexual couple.
The boys’ grandfather says the adoption would go against the “family’s Christian values”.
The boys, aged nine and six, were taken away from their mother after she allowed them to have contact with their father, her estranged husband, who had physically abused her.
Despite the mother’s parents and married brother each offering a home to the boys, social workers advertised them in an internet adoption magazine and decided that a homosexual couple should adopt them.
Their mother has told a family court in Somerset that a homosexual household is not a suitable environment for her sons.
She told one newspaper: “I would love to look after the boys myself and think I am quite capable, especially with the support of my family.
“I was dismayed to find they are going to a single-sex couple. Social workers just dumped the truth on me. I was called to their office about the adoption procedures, and they said the boys’ new parents would be a single-sex couple.”
The mother’s brother says he has discussed the matter with homosexual friends, who have also raised concerns.
“They asked about the long-term future of the couple who want to adopt my nephews. Will they stay together? Are they in a civil partnership? What happens to the children if they split up?”
Critics of gay adoption have questioned the stability of same-sex relationships, particularly given the fact that many children placed for adoption have already experienced significant family disruption.
Government figures show that none of the 20 male couples in England who adopted children in the year up to March 2008 had registered their relationship as a civil partnership.
The boys’ grandfather, a sports coach in his sixties, said: “The boys thought they were getting a new mummy and daddy, not a daddy and daddy. We are not homophobic, but we feel strongly this adoption is against our family’s Christian values.”
Their grandmother added: “Our grandsons are being forcibly taken from a family who want them dearly. We are worried they will be indoctrinated into a different lifestyle. This is social engineering by the state.”
Somerset County Council say they cannot comment on individual cases.
The case is similar to one which emerged earlier this year of an Edinburgh couple who were told they would never see their grandchildren again unless they dropped their opposition to the children being adopted by a gay couple.
The grandparents had been turned down as adoptive parents themselves because, at 46 and 59, they were told they were too old.