Baby taken away from Brazilian gay couple

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • January 11, 2008 - 15:14

The official, Cláudio Santos de Moraes, said he was not being homophobic when he fought for the couple to lose custody of the baby.

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A government official who successfully fought to take an adopted baby away from a gay couple in Brazil has said that "gay couples are abnormal."

On Monday 70 people gathered in San Jose do Rio Preto, a small town outside of Sao Paulo, to protest against the baby being removed from the care of a 30-year-old transsexual hairdresser, Roberta Góes Luiz, and her partner.

"I've been through three psychological evaluations successfully. I have my own home, I've been with my partner for six years and I have a job," Roberta told O Globo .

"But for others that isn't 'normal' and I'm not capable of taking care of a baby.

"That's prejudice, there is no other explanation. But I'm not going to give up. I want my son back."

In an interview with the Diario de S.Paulo newspaper, the official, Cláudio Santos de Moraes, said he was not being homophobic when he fought for the couple to lose custody of the baby.

According to him, if a situation is 'unusual', then it is 'abnormal'.

"I'm not discriminating," he said.

"I simply understand that this child has the right to a conventional family, with a mother that is a woman and a father that is a man. I don't think it is correct to give custody to that transsexual man."

The baby had been under Roberta's care for 8 months.

However Moraes said he didn't want to feel "guilty" if the child didn't like his parents in the future.

"If it's an abnormal situation then I don't see why we would take the risk. The child cannot be a scientific experiment to see if things turn out well," he said.

"If that child has the chance to live with a normal family, why should we put it in a situation that might bring it future consequences?"

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