A same-sex Danish couple have become the first people to adopt a child from abroad since the Scandinavian country legalised the practice in 2010.
Thomas Moler Lassen and Rasmus Holm have adopted a ninth-month-old girl from South Africa, making them the first homosexual couple to legally adopt from another country. The couple, who recently returned from South Africa, plan to bring their daughter up in the coastal city of Aarhus.
Despite the fact the law came into force in 2010, not too many other countries allow gay couples to adopt so it has taken four years for one to be approved. Denmark’s LGBTI association chief Soren Laursen said upon hearing the news that he was “pleasantly surprised”.
He explained that in the past they had almost come to the conclusion that it was virtually impossible for same-sex couples to adopt from abroad. He said, however, that this showed they could have been misguided and gave them a reason to view the situation much more positively.
Equality Minister Manu Sareen added that he hoped more homosexual couples would try to adopt from abroad. He said that he hoped more couples got the chance to “experience the great joy of being parents” and were allowed to offer a child a nice life.