VIENNA — Austria’s Constitutional Court has ruled that same-sex couples have the same right as heterosexuals to adopt children.
Before the decision Wednesday, gay partners could adopt a child only if one of them was the child’s biological parent.
Explaining the decision, chief judge Gerhart Holzinger says there is “no objective argument for a differing rule based solely on sexual orientation” of the parents.
He says the adoption restriction contravened anti-discrimination statutes of the European Human Rights Convention.
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Gays still cannot marry in Austria, although couples formally registered as living together enjoy many of the rights that married heterosexual couples do.
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