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Spain:"Go straight or surrender kids" -judge

Tue 24 Jul 2007 In: International News

A Spanish judge has ordered a woman to either enter a relationship with a man or turn her children over to her former husband after the court was told the woman is a lesbian. Judge Fernando Ferrin Calamita said that having a lesbian mother would harm the children and "raised the risk" that the girls would also become gay, the EFE news agency reports. "It is understood that [a parent's] drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution, belonging to a satanic sect or heterosexual affair would negatively affect the children and serve as a reason for a change of custody. Well, it's the same with homosexuality," the judge was quoted as saying. Ferrin Calamita, who presides over family court in the eastern region of Murcia, said he would allow the unnamed woman to keep the children only if she were in a heterosexual relationship. The judge assailed Spain's law allowing same-sex couples to wed and to adopt children. Both daughters were born while she was in an opposite-sex marriage. When she came out and left her husband she took the children with her. Her former husband was fighting for custody. The woman is expected to appeal the ruling. In 2005, Spain became the third country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.The Catholic Church and Spain's conservative opposition party have been pressing for repeal of the law ever since.     Ref: 365gay.com (m)

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Tuesday, 24th July 2007 - 12:11pm

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