Adoption by gay couple creates controversy in the U.K.
The Press Association reports that a recovering drug addict whose two children are reportedly to be adopted by a gay couple has told how she had wanted them to have a “mum and dad”.
The woman, who has not been identified, was unable to look after her five-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister. The children, from Edinburgh, had been cared for by their grandparents but were, according to the Daily Mail newspaper, placed in foster care and are to be adopted by a gay couple.
The mother told the newspaper: “I did not under any circumstances want my children to be placed with gay men. I wanted them to have a mum and a dad.”
The grandparents, aged 59 and 46, had looked after the youngsters almost from birth, according to the newspaper. But they said concerns about their age and health had led to social workers considering them unsuitable to look after the children.
Council chiefs in Edinburgh took them to court to remove their rights to care for them, the paper said. The youngsters have been in foster care while the legal action took place over the last two years.
The grandparents said they eventually gave up their legal fight because of rising costs. Now it has emerged that social workers have placed the brother and sister with a gay couple. And the grandparents claim they have been warned they risk never seeing the youngsters again if they continue with their opposition to the same-sex adoption.
Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said it was a devastating decision which would have a serious impact on the welfare of the children involved.
The grandfather told the Daily Mail: “It breaks my heart to think that our grandchildren are being forced to grow up in an environment without a mother figure. We are not prejudiced but I defy anyone to explain to us how this can be in their best interests. The ideal for any child is to have a loving father and loving mother.”
No-one was available for comment from Edinburgh City Council.