Sunday, December 09, 2012

Norway Crown Princess Acts to Help Gay Couple and Surrogate Children

America is becoming increasingly backward compared to other modern countries when it comes to its treatment of its LGBT citizens and the still prevailing  medieval attitudes towards gay adoption in states like Virginia.  Highlighting the America's divergence from progressive nations , Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Maritin (pictured above left) recently undertook to act to aid a gay couple adopting surrogate children from India.  When the couple experienced problems securing the necessary travel visa, the princess herself traveled to India at her own personal expense and came to the couple's aid.  Can one imagine any American public official acting in such a magnanimous and humane manner?  Huffington Post has coverage and here are highlights:

OSLO, Norway — When friends of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit couldn't travel to India to welcome their surrogate twins into the world, the royal stepped up, minding the couple's newborns for three days and even being mistaken by hospital staff for a nanny.

In a statement from the Royal Court, the princess described how she had flown to New Delhi on Oct. 23 after visa problems prevented the children's Norwegian parents – a same-sex couple – from arriving at the hospital in time for the birth.  "There are times in life when one finds oneself in a complex situation where there are few or no good solutions," she wrote.

"For me the core of the matter was that there were two newborn babies who lay alone in a hospital in Delhi. I was the one who was able to travel. It was important to me to help in any way I could."  She stayed to mind the babies until relatives – and eventually also the two fathers – could get to the hospital.

One of the men is an employee of the royal household and a good friend of Mette-Marit's. The twins arrived in Norway last week. Hagen did not identify the couple or give the genders of the babies.  The court said the travel was paid out of the princess' private funds.
Here in Virginia, the Virginia GOP has done all in its power to inhibit gay adoption and has passed regulations that allow adoption agencies to discriminate based on the religion and/or sexual orientation of the would be adoptive or foster parents.   These Christofascists have largely thrown Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty down the toilet.

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