Adoption Croatia still in its infancy: first gay couple to have foster children

In the Netherlands, gay couples have been able to adopt children from abroad for over ten years, and foster children were already placed in the home of loved ones of the same sex in the last century. Adoption is still in its infancy in Catholic Croatia, or even in tiny baby shoes. But the first foster children have now been placed.

Gay couple has two foster children after a long and hard fight against the system, prejudice and discrimination. Thank you guys! ”, Writes a young Croat on social media.

Because it is indeed a special moment for the country. After a long legal battle, two foster children have been placed with a gay couple for the first time in Croatia. It is an important step for the gay community in predominantly Catholic Croatia, says Daniel Martinovic of the Rainbow Families interest group that released the news. In the eighties of the last century, foster children were already placed in the same-sex house in the Netherlands.

Now there is a shortage of foster parents in our country and more and more foster grandparents are called upon, such as foster grandmother Ilja, whose life has changed completely. She was recently even in the Etos to buy condoms. You can read her story here.

Gay rights Croatia

Croatia has been a member of the European Union since 2013 and has been gradually working towards gay rights in the country. For example, gay couples have been allowed to enter into a registered partnership since 2014.

In February, a Supreme Court ruled that gay couples also have the right to foster children. This paved the way for husbands Ivo Segota (39) and Mladen Kozic (37) to finally get foster children into the home, a struggle they have been fighting since 2017.

Fight

"This gives us hope that things can still change in our country," says Martinovic, who indicates that the foster parents are very happy with the expansion of their household. But according to Martinovic, the fight for "full marriage and family equality" is not over yet. He also wants to facilitate adoption for gay couples, whereby a child also becomes legally part of the family and thus also receives the surname of his new parents.

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