[echaos]

I recently came across some articles that I would like to share with everyone.

Do you think that laws changing in other countries will have any impact on the US's outlook?

(Amsterdam, The Netherlands) — According to the justice minister of The Netherlands, the Dutch government will push forward with efforts to make adoption easier for same-sex couples.

Just four years after The Netherlands became the first country to legalize gay marriage, Justice Minister Hein Donner said he will introduce draft legislation later this year that would allow gay couples to adopt children from abroad. He said he will also work on legislation that would allow a woman’s lesbian partner to adopt her child at birth.

The Dutch government passed laws in 2000 that allow gay couples to marry and adopt children in The Netherlands, but laws still ban foreign adoption and gay couples must live together a minimum of three years before adoption rights of a partner’s child will be granted.

Gay rights groups around the world are heralding this announcement as a huge step forward in the push toward equal rights. Following in The Netherlands footsteps, several other European countries, including the predominantly Catholic Spain, are making pushes toward same-sex marriage and adoption legislation in 2005.

Data published last month by the Dutch press showed that gay marriages were as stable as heterosexual marriages, with and mere 63 couples of the 5 751 who tied that knot between 2001 and 2003 divorcing.