DUTCH BILL WOULD ALLOW MORE THAN TWO PARENTS

Dutch debate rights of three or more gay parents

By Nicolas Delaunay

"I think my friends are a little jealous because I've got two mummies and two daddies and they've only got two parents," says Simon, 6, squirming with his brother Joaquin, 3, on the knees of their four gay parents.

While Britain and France in the last week plodded ahead with gay marriage draft legislation, the first country in the world to legalise same-sex unions, the Netherlands in 2001, is already one step ahead.

The Dutch justice ministry is about to commission a report examining the possibility of recognising three parents or more for one child, notably to protect so-called "pink" families.

..............

Read more here

MEET MY MOM AND THREE DADS 

DUTCH BILL WOULD ALLOW MORE THAN TWO PARENTS

By Benjamin Dürr

We all know that families today are no longer only made up of Mom and Dad and the kids. This has led the Netherlands to work on legislation that would make it possible to have more than two people as parents. Take Susanne Supheert, 25 – she has four parents.

It was more than 11 years ago on a Tuesday in December that they dropped the bomb. Susanne was 13. She came home from school to find her Dad sitting in front of his computer, her Mom leaning against the sideboard. Her parents had been married 22 years. And now her father was announcing that he was gay.

The family changed after his announcement. Her parents got divorced; Susanne’s father moved out andremarried – this time, to a man. Her mother remarried too – also to a man. So now, 12 years later, Susanne has four parents.

Families are changing as fast as society is. Parents find new partners; children are adopted by gay or lesbian couples. The father-and-mother model has in many cases become obsolete. Discussions have been underway since last October in the Netherlands to make it legally possible for more than two people to be recognized as parents. But it’s not only a legal issue – what’s at stake is the definition of parenthood, and what and who parents are.

.....................

Read more here: worldcrunch.com