LGBT News: Colombia Removes Ban on Same-Sex Couple Adoption

Colombia's constitutional court now allows same-sex couples to adopt children.

The 6-2 ruling came on Wednesday, with the court ordering adoption agencies not to discriminate against gay men, lesbians, and transsexuals, NBC reported. Until now, same-sex couples could only adopt a child if it was one of the member's offspring, BBC noted.

"A person's sexual orientation or gender are not in and of themselves indicative of a lack of moral, physical or mental suitability to adopt," said Maria Victoria Calle Correa, the chief justice of the Constitutional Court, as quoted by the news outlet.

The ruling said that gay couples could adopt children just like heterosexual couples, as long as all legal requirements were met by the partners. It added that prohibiting gay couples as possible adoptive parents "limits children's right to a family," BBC further reported.

"This is historic," said Marcela Sanchez, director of Colombia Diversa, one of Colombia's main gay rights groups, as quoted by Fusion. "From now on everyone will have equal opportunity when they request an adoption."

Colombia now joins a number of Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, consenting to same-sex couples adoption, NBC News further wrote. It also comes after several gay-friendly rulings, such as the reaffirmation of the rights of same-sex couples to have civil unions with the same inheritance and legal rights as married couples.

Same-sex couples right to be married, however, is still pending. In 2013, Congress rejected a proposal to fully legalize gay marriage, BBC added.

The recent ruling immediately met backlash upon its announcement. Colombia's Roman Catholic Church said the decision is violating children's rights and "going against the wishes of the majority of Colombians who polls say overwhelmingly reject giving gays the same rights to marriage and adoption as heterosexual couples," NBC News wrote.

"Our protest is emphatic," Monsignor Juan Vicente Cordoba, a church spokesman, told RCN TV, as reported by NBC News. "We have the right so that the voice of the majority of Colombians is heard. The court is there to take care of the laws, not change them."

Cordoba repeated the Church's demand that the issue be decided by a plebiscite, the news outlet noted.

On the other hand, supporters of the ruling said that it could aid with simplifying the adoption of some 10,000 children in Colombia currently protected by welfare agencies. According to NBC News, President Juan Manuel Santos' administration is in favor of the plaintiffs in the case. Wednesday's decision was jumpstarted last year by the high court, which authorized adoption rights for gay couples in which one partner is a biological parent.