Adoption

Adoption is a process whereby a person or couple can become the legal parents of a child.

In the UK it has always been legally possible for gay people to adopt. However this only applied to unmarried people or to married couples. If a gay couple wished to adopt, legally only one partner could be the adoptive parent.

In December 2005, the Adoption and Children Act 2002 came into effect. This allowed unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to apply for joint adoption. This did not apply in Northern Ireland, where only single people or married couples can adopt. This has the paradoxical effect that a single person in a gay relationship can adopt, but people in civil partnerships cannot, either as a couple or as individuals.

In October 2012 a court ruled that the Northern Ireland ban on adoption by unmarried coupls and civil partners was unlawful.