User:Michaelasabbag/Same-sex adoption in Europe

Court cases about Same-sex adoption
=== V.M.A. vs Sofia municipality, Pancharevo district, Bulgaria === On 15 April 2021, the European Court of Justice found that a member state is required to grant citizenship to the child of a same-sex couple regardless of the legality of same-sex marriages in that state. A married lesbian couple was living in Spain when they had their first child in December 2019. One woman had Bulgarian citizenship, and the other had British. The Spanish birth certificate designated one mother as “Mother A” and the other as “Mother.” When the Bulgarian woman applied for citizenship for her daughter in Bulgaria, she was denied because Bulgaria does not recognize same-sex unions and registrations. Article 46 of the Bulgarian Constitution reads, “Marriage is a voluntary union between a man and a woman,” hence not allowing for same-sex relationships. However, it was unclear whether their status as a same-sex couple should interfere with the citizenship of their child. The European Court of Justice found that despite Bulgaria’s constitutional objection to homosexual marriages, they could not deny the child their Bulgarian nationality, regardless of whether the child was the legal or biological child of the applicant. Therefore, the child was issued a Bulgarian birth certificate and granted citizenship to Bulgaria. The couple was protected by Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which ensures members’ rights to move freely between countries. The Bulgarian woman’s new residence in Spain did not destroy her child’s right to Bulgarian citizenship.

=== Gas and Dubois vs France === Two French women who had been living together since 1989 joined a civil partnership agreement in 2002. In 2000, one of the women traveled to Bulgaria for an artificial insemination treatment. Upon birth, only the biological mother was granted parental custody of the child. The other mother applied for a simple adoption in order to obtain joint parental custody and was denied. Article 365 of the French Civil Code clarifies that a simple adoption is available to married couples specifically, but Article 144 prohibited same-sex marriage. Therefore, they could not achieve the legal status required for simple adoption. The women appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that they were discriminated against based on sexual orientation, claiming that their right to a private family life (Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights) and their right to equity under the law (Article 14) had been violated. The court held in a 6-1 decision that the women had experienced no legal violation of Articles 8 and 14, so no simple adoption for joint custody would be allowed.