Legal Status By Country/jurisdiction
Full joint adoption by same-sex couples is currently legal in the following countries:
- Argentina (2010)
- Belgium (2006)
- Brazil (2010)
- Canada (1999 onward, depending on province)
- Denmark (2010)
- Iceland (2006)
- Netherlands (2001)
- Norway (2009)
- South Africa (2002)
- Spain (2005)
- Sweden (2002)
- United Kingdom: England and Wales (2005), Scotland (2009) and Northern Ireland (unclear).
- Uruguay (2009)
Full joint adoption by same-sex couples is currently legal in the following jurisdictions:
- Australia: Western Australia (2002), Australian Capital Territory (2004), and New South Wales (2010).
- Mexico: Mexico City (2010) and Coahuila.
- United States: Rhode Island (1993), District of Columbia (1995), New Jersey (1998), New York (2002), California (2003), Indiana (2006), Maine (2007), Florida (2010), Arkansas (2011), Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, Hawaii, Iowa, Nevada, Delaware, Guam
In the following countries, "stepchild-adoption" is permitted, so that the partner in a registered partnership (or unregistered cohabitation in Israel) can adopt the natural (or sometimes even adopted) child of his or her partner:
- Finland (2009)
- Germany (2004)
- Greenland (2009)
- Israel (2005) (Israel allowed overseas adoption and full joint adoption in several cases)
In the following jurisdictions permit "stepchild-adoption" in which onee partner in a civil union can adopt the natural (or sometimes even adopted) child of his or her partner:
- Australia: Tasmania (2004)
- United States: Pennsylvania (2002), Colorado, Montana
Read more about this topic: LGBT Adoption
Famous quotes containing the words legal, status, country and/or jurisdiction:
“There are ... two minimum conditions necessary and sufficient for the existence of a legal system. On the one hand those rules of behavior which are valid according to the systems ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and on the other hand, its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials.”
—H.L.A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus)
“Knowing how beleaguered working mothers truly areknowing because I am one of themI am still amazed at how one need only say I work to be forgiven all expectation, to be assigned almost a handicapped status that no decent human being would burden further with demands. I work has become the universally accepted excuse, invoked as an all-purpose explanation for bowing out, not participating, letting others down, or otherwise behaving inexcusably.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“No, in country money, the country scale of gain,
The requisite lift of spirit has never been found....”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“The putting into force of laws which shall secure the conservation of our resources, as far as they may be within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, including the more important work of saving and restoring our forests and the great improvement of waterways, are all proper government functions which must involve large expenditure if properly performed.”
—William Howard Taft (18571930)