Gay couples will be able to adopt children in Northern Ireland under proposed new legislation published yesterday by the North's health minister, Paul Goggins.
Mr Goggins said his consultation document, Adopting the Future, was designed to improve adoption services and put children at the "heart of the process".
Couples in homosexual and lesbian relationships as well as unmarried couples, subject to the same vetting procedures that apply to heterosexual couples, would be permitted to adopt children under the legislation. Gay couples in England have been allowed to adopt for the last year.
Free Presbyterian minister Rev David McIlveen said the legislation was unacceptable and "repulsive".
PA Mac Lochlainn of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association welcomed the proposed legislation. He said children fared better when cared for by couples in stable relationships than in institutions.
Greg Kelly of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering said Irish authorities could possibly learn from the North's new approach to adoption.
