Mexican court upholds adoption by gay couples

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Mexico City, Aug 17 (IANS/EFE) Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a Mexico City ordinance allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, saying there was no evidence that homosexuals were worse parents than heterosexuals.

By a vote of 9-2, the judges gave gay and lesbian couples the same rights to adopt children as heterosexual couples.

The move comes close on the heels of an earlier high court ruling upholding a decision to allow same-sex marriage. The court acted in response to a challenge to the Mexico City ordinance filed by the federal Attorney General’s Office.

Only Chief Justice Guillermo Ortiz Mayagoitia and Justice Salvador Aguirre Anguiano were opposed to the ruling.

They said marriage was an institution that existed before the Mexican Constitution which ‘permanently’ joins a man and a woman, with the willingness to ‘procreate’, something that is broken if adoptions by homosexuals united in marriage are allowed.

Anguiano also argued that there would not be any ‘superior good of the child’ by supporting this type of adoption, but his arguments were rejected by the majority.

‘It was not able to be demonstrated that the fact of being raised by homosexual parents harms children, or that homosexual parents would be worse parents than heterosexuals, or that these children would be put at risk, in turn, of becoming homosexuals,’ said magistrate Arturo Zaldivar.

Another judge, Margarita Luna Ramos, said the question of adoption was not a matter ‘of gender’ but rather one ‘of people’. She said the requirements for adopting are all suitable because adoption authorities would take into account personal qualities, education and the level of ‘commitment’ of the couple to the prospective adopted child.

IANS