Belgium: Senate votes for the adoption of children by homosexual couples

On December 2, 2005, the House of Representatives passed the bill on the adoption of children by same sex couples, by 77 in favor, 62 against with 7 abstentions. On April 20, the Senate approved this bill by 34 votes to 33, with 2 abstentions. “This is the effective end of a long parliamentary procedure, as Thursday’s vote was definitive,” declared the daily La Libre Belgique, on April 21.

As soon as the bill was made public in May 2005, the Belgian bishops expressed their “deep concerns.” Without “doubting the sincerity of the wishes of homosexual couples wanting to adopt,” they asked that “the consequences that such an adoption could have on the psychological development of the children concerned” be studied.

“In the context of the present situation,” they pointed out, “such a measure gives more credence to the idea that homosexual couples are a simple variant version of a couple consisting of a man and a woman.” “On top of this, to legalize the adoption of children in such a context would increase even more the confusion regarding the difference between the sexes which is the founding reference point of the family.”

Belgium finds herself alongside with Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Spain, where marriage and adoption by homosexual couples has also been legalized.