French adoption official removed after discriminating statements
The French official who considered that gays should only be able to adopt "atypical children", that "nobody wants", won’t decide anymore which partner, hetero or homosexual, deserves to be responsible for a minor under the tutelage of the State. The authorities of the department of Seine-Maritime, in northwest France, where the woman worked, have announced that she will be immediately removed from her duties.
In the midst of widespread condemnation of their statements, an investigation has also been initiated into the local adoption services that same-sex associations demand to be extended to other parts of the country. "After the unacceptable statements of the head of the adoption service, I have decided to order an external audit to verify the operation of the service, and remove the interested party from her functions," the president of the departmental council of Seine-Maritime, Pascal Martin, announced Wednesday.
The official had revealed on Monday in an interview with France Bleu that, in the service that until now she ran, "homosexual couples are not excluded, but they are not a priority" and that she considered that in any case they should only be able to adopt "atypical" children. She justified her decision arguing that "they themselves [in reference to homosexual couples] are somewhat atypical with respect to the social norm, but also the biological norm, so it is necessary that their project includes (the adoption) of atypical children, of children that nobody wants."
Asked about what she considered "atypical children", Pascale Lemare described them as "too damaged, too psychologically disturbed, too old, with too great a disability". That is, she concluded, "children who have some disturbances that couples (adopters) do not seek".
Her statements caused a wave of condemnations and protests from homosexual organizations and from the same government, whose charge of Equality and the fight against discrimination, Marlène Schiappa, said in a statement that the laws guarantee equal conditions for gay couples. and assured that "no discrimination will be tolerated". After hearing the decision to remove Lemare from her duties, the government spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, celebrated "the taking of sanctions in the face of unacceptable statements.""All families are the same, especially for adoption," Griveaux added in a tweet that included the emojis of families made up of two parents, two mothers and a father and a mother.
Although the decision responds to the demand of the Association of Homoparental Families (ADFH, for its spanish acronym), which has also lodged a complaint against the official, the organization demands more actions from the central government. In a letter published on its website and addressed to the Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, the ADFH demands that another responsible for adoptions in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, in the east of the country, would be similarly removed from its functions, also for declaring in April that he favored heterosexual couples.