Judge orders lesbian mom to go straight or surrender children

A Spanish judge has ordered a woman to either enter a relationship with a man or turn her children over to her former husband after the court was told the woman is a lesbian. Judge Fernando Ferrin Calamita said that having a lesbian mother would harm the children and "raised the risk" that the girls would also become gay the EFE news agency reported on July 23. "It is understood that [a parent's] drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution, belonging to a satanic sect or heterosexual affair would negatively affect the children and serve as a reason for a change of custody. Well, it's the same with homosexuality," EFE quoted him as saying." Ferrin Calamita, who presides over family court in the eastern region of Murcia said he would allow the unnamed woman to keep the children only if she were in a heterosexual relationship. The judge assailed Spain's law allowing same-sex couples to wed and to adopt children. Both daughters were born while she was in an opposite-sex marriage. When she came out and left her husband she took the children with her. Her former husband was fighting for custody. EFE reports that the woman is expected to appeal the ruling. In the meantime a formal complaint about the ruling has been filed with the Supreme Court judicial ethics branch. In 2005 Spain became the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church and Spain's conservative opposition party have been pressing for repeal of the law ever since.