Poll finds most Colombians oppose gay adoption

Bogotá, Colombia, May 25, 2012 / 11:09 am

An overwhelming majority of Colombians have voiced opposition to a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court granting homosexuals the right to adopt.

According to the first online poll taken since the ruling by Noticias Caracol, 67 percent of respondents said they oppose the decision.

By 10:30 a.m. on May 24, some 9,000 votes had been taken in the poll. More than 7,000 respondents said they disagreed with allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court recently ruled that Charles Ellis Burr, a columnist with the New York Times, could legally adopt two children who already reside with him in New York. Burr, a practicing homosexual, had concealed his orientation from the adoption agency and country officials.

In December, a judge in Bogota granted Burr permission to leave the country with the children. But Colombia’s Attorney General appealed the ruling, arguing that Burr did not reveal his homosexuality and was not subjected to a thorough personal review.

The Attorney General also asked the adoption agency to follow up on Burr’s case monthly and to review the policy on how adoption requests from single-parent families or single persons are processed.

The court ruled in favor of Burr, however, and the Attorney General's office is now expected to appeal the court’s ruling and request it be overturned.