Uruguay Legalizes Gay Adoption

Uruguay lawmakers have approved the bill legalizing adoption by same-sex couples. The bill was first proposed last month to great objections by local Catholic leaders.

Lawmakers voted Wednesday to extend adoption rights to gay couples in Uruguay, the latest measure to relax laws on homosexuality that has drawn criticism from church leaders in the country, which is predominantly Roman Catholic. Members of Congress said the law made Uruguay the first Latin American country to permit gay couples to adopt. The measure, which will now go to President Tabaré Vázquez for his signature, will also for the first time allow unmarried couples to adopt. “This law is a significant step toward recognizing the rights of homosexual couples,” Diego Sempol, a member of the gay rights group, Black Sheep, told Reuters Television earlier this week.

In 2007 Uruguay approved civil unions for same-sex couples, giving gays many (but not all) of the rights of marriage. Last year they lifted the ban on gays in the their military. That's Uruguay folks, more progressive than the USA.