BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE

HOBART — The Tasmanian Law Reform Institute (TLRI) released a report on May 28 recommending that adoption by same-sex couples be legalised.

The report strongly argues that adoption should be an option for same-sex couples both for “known child placement” (for example, when a person adopts the child of their existing same sex partner) and for general placement.

The report also recommends that co-parenthood for the same-sex partners of women who conceive using assisted reproductive technology be assumed automatically (as is currently the case for heterosexual couples) and that sexual diversity awareness of all adoptive parents be assessed since not all adopted children will grow up to be heterosexuals.

“The TLRI report is the most detailed and comprehensive report of its kind every written in Australia and will probably remain so for years to come”, according to the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group's May 29 Equality Bulletin. “We can expect it to shape the same-sex couple debate not only in Tasmania, but in all those states which still ban adoption by same sex couples.”

The TLRI report can be found at: <http://www.law.utas.edu.au/reform>.

From Green Left Weekly, June 11, 2003.
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