Dozens of children in Scotland have been adopted by gay and lesbian couples as agencies mount a drive to increase same-sex adoption.
According to The Herald, one national adoption charity is placing 20 per cent of children with same-sex couples, while actively encouraging more lesbian and gay couples to adopt children.
The Scottish Government approved gay adoption in 2006 despite the fact that at the time 90 per cent of the population opposed it.
Mainstream
Margaret Moyes, Chief Executive of charity Scottish Adoption, said LGBT adoption has become a “mainstream” part of their work and revealed that the number of LGBT couples who adopt is increasing every year.
She praised the new focus on LGBT couples as “very successful”, reporting that 1 in 5 children placed by the charity is now with a homosexual couple.
And Vivienne Bonner, Team Manager at Glasgow City Council’s adoption body Families for Children, said there should be no barrier to placing children with same-sex couples: “Our children come from diverse backgrounds and we need prospective parents who also reflect that diversity.”
Opposition
Same-sex adoption was brought in under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, in the face of opposition by individual MSPs and groups including The Christian Institute. In 2009, fostering rights for homosexual couples also came into force.
In 2006, The Institute urged the Scottish Government not to pander to political correctness and stressed that there were many married couples suitable to adopt but that some had been rejected because they were too fat, too rich, had too many books or went to church.