Colombia: Gay adoption still prohibited

Colombia Reports: The Colombian Constitutional Court clarified that same-sex couple adoption is still prohibited, following the ruling of an Antioquian court that granted joint maternal custody to a lesbian couple.

The Court announced that the ruling by the Antioquian court was unconstitutional. The lesbian couple case had sought to overturn a law prohibiting same-sex couple adoption.

The two women, who have been together since 2005 and formalized their union before a notary in 2008, decided to have a baby via artificial insemination.

Their initial petition for joint maternal custody to welfare agency Bienestar Familiar was denied on the grounds that a same-sex partnership does not consititute a family.

The two women subsequently took out court order to challenge this denial.

The Antioquia court ruled that the couple, both the biological mother and her partner, had the right to joint legal custody of the child and ordered Bienestar Familiar to process the adoption within 48 hours.

Bienestar Familiar has challenged the judge´s ruling, but they must process the petition until a higher court overturns this ruling, which they have not done so.