Colombia court lifts same-sex adoption ban
(Getty)
Colombia’s highest court has lifted a ban on same-sex couples adopting children.
The country currently allows same-sex couples to enter into ‘de facto’ unions, but laws banning same-sex marriage and adoption remain in place.
However, the country’s constitutional court lifted an adoption restriction on Wednesday – voting by 6-2 that banning same-sex couples from adoption violates “children’s right to a family”.
In a 6-2 decision, the court said that excluding homosexual couples as possible adoptive parents “limits children’s right to a family”.
It amends a previous ruling that same-sex couples could adopt eachother’s children from previous relationships, but could not adopt children together.
A bill to legalise same-sex marriage was voted down in Colombia’s Senate in 2013.
Earlier this year, Colombia adopted a new gender recognition law – that allows trans people to gain legal recognition without undergoing surgery or seeing a psychiatrist.
The country’s government had moved to amend laws that previously required individuals to undergo” psychiatric or physical examinations before gaining legal rights.
The new process only requires that people submit a form, a copy of their ID card, and a sworn deceleration that they desire to change their legal gender.
