Monday, July 02, 2012



Kiwis support gay adoption

The Herald reports on a poll showing that over 60% of kiwis support gay adoption:

A Herald-DigiPoll showed that 61.2 per cent of the public felt adoption law should be changed to allow all couples, including same-sex couples, to adopt while 35.1 per cent felt adoption should be kept to heterosexual couples. The survey also showed more than half of New Zealanders approved of gay marriage, while 40.5 per cent opposed it.

Labour and Greens have long called for an update to the Adoption Act 1955, which governs the rules of adoption. National felt it was not a priority.

This is a seven percent increase in support in the last six months, which is probably statistically significant. And the reason is pretty clear: people have begun talking about it. And once they do, the case for reform becomes overwhelming. No sensible person opposes same-sex couples being allowed to be legal parents to their own kids, or civil unioned couples being able to adopt when de facto couples can. Meanwhile, the "case" against - essentially smearing gays as paedophiles - is exposed as nothing more than bigotry.

There's a bill in the ballot, and I have no doubt that if it is drawn, it will pass, with only arch-bigots like Bill English and Judith Collins voting against it.