Famecrawler
Ukraine Responds: No Adoption For Elton John
Responding to Elton John’s reported interest in adopting Lev, a 14-month-old, HIV positive boy from the Ukraine, the nation’s Family Minister has replied, unsurprisingly, with a flat ‘sorry buddy, ain’t gonna happen.’
Here’s what the Ukrainian official, Yuriy Pavlenko, said:
“Elton John will not be able to adopt a Ukrainian child and if he files that request we will unfortunately deny it,” Pavlenko said. “The law is the same for everybody: for a president, for a minister, for Elton John.”
That is, of course, because Elton is both over the Ukraine’s 45 year age gap between adoptive children and parents (he’s 62) and the fact that Elton is considered “unmarried” — because the Ukraine doesn’t recognize same sex civil unions.
The saddest part of the story (and the part I didn’t pick up on earlier) is that Lev is HIV positive. Elton certainly has the resources to care for a child with those special medical needs, while many eligible parents do not.
Does this completely shut the door on Elton’s adoption plans? Maybe. He can still hope to pull a Madonna and bully the courts to grant him special privileges.
His partner David Furnish meets the age requirements, but doesn’t meet the marriage requirements. Maybe he can devise some kind of sham marriage with a beard?
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2 Comments
Ali commented on Sep 15 09 at 3:12 pmCreating a sham marriage, even for overseas adoption, is against US immigration laws. I know David and he is a wonderful, patient man but he is no law breaker. He would be a great father. He already has displayed the patience of a saint being married to John.
Leila commented on Sep 15 09 at 4:29 pmWhy doesn’t he try to adopt from the foster system? I don’t know about the UK laws, but here in the US he wouldn’t have been discriminated.
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