As of January 1, 2015 adoption by couples in Denmark does no longer require marriage. This is a general revision of the Adoption Act. It is of particular interest to rainbow families who become pregnant by means of home insemination, i.e. not under the responsibility of a health person. In that case, if the same-sex partner of the birth mother is to be legal parent she must make a second-parent adoption – the same goes for a male partner of the biological father.
In 1999 Denmark was the first country to make it possible for a child to have two legal parents of the same sex. This was by means of access to second-parent adoption within the registered partnership. As the Adoption Act required marriage/registered partnership same-sex parents had to be married/registered, whereas opposite-sex parents could be legal parents without marriage.
During the first decade of the century the female same-sex couples have outnumbered the male same-sex couples entering registered partnership, and it is likely that the access to second-parent adoption was the reason for this.
Since 2013 rainbow families are included in the Children’s Act. If the children are conceived under the responsibility of a health person, second-parent adoption is not necessary. Instead the birth mother, her female partner and a man providing sperm can make a binding contract – before conceiving – as for who shall be the second legal parent: the partner or the man. In other words, wether the man shall be father or sperm donor. See the presentation from ILGA-Europe Annual Conference on the Children’s Act (https://panbloggen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/the-new-childrens-act/)
The recent revision on adoption was passed December 19., 2014 and came into force few days later.
Furthermore an important change in administrative practice was made: in case of second-parent adoption there is a 2.5 years rule saying that the parents and the child must live together for 2.5 years before second-parent adoption is possible. The rule is old and basically concerns adoption of big children in re-formed families, typically after parents divorce. But the rule is used generally and thus was also applied to families with newborns, typically rainbow families. The logic of the rule is to ensure the stability of the family before allowing adoption, but that does not make sense in case of newborn children resulting from careful family planning. LGBT Denmark has asked for abolition of this administrative rule since the beginning of the last decade. The practice has been unclear in periods but in recent years it has been meticulously upheld. For some time the minister for children, equality, integration and social affairs, Manu Sareen, has said the practice was being investigated anticipating it would be lifted for rainbow families. In late January Sareen told the Parliament in a letter, that the practice was changed – the same day as the parties supporting the government, the Red-Green Alliance and the Socialist People’s Party, proposed a Parliamentary resolution on the same thing.
The rule had a huge impact on the families which were struck by it, i.e. those rainbow families, where the conceiving is in private, the father is known and the parents agree that the co-mother should be the second legal parent. Until now they had to wait for 2.5 years thus withholding the family in an improper legal situation. Now adoption can be made immediately after the birth of the child.
Please see here for further details.
