Portuguese American Journal

Gay Rights: Portuguese Parliament to debate adoption – Portugal

The Portuguese parliament will introduce on February 24 a bill allowing gay couples to adopt children. Debate on the bill has yet to be scheduled.

The 2010 law permitting same-sex marriages in Portugal gives gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples, including taxes, inheritance and housing, but does not offer the right to adopt children.

Portugal is among the first 10 counties in the world to allow same-sex marriage. As recently as 1982 homosexuality was a crime in Portugal.

Today, Portugal has wide-ranging anti-discrimination laws and is one of the few countries in the world to contain a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation in its Constitution.

The first same-sex marriages in the world took place in the Netherlands on April 1, 2001. The countries that followed were Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina and Brazil.

Countries where gay adoption is legal include Guam, Andorra, Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom. It is also legal in some parts of Australia, Canada, and the United States.

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