Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These are the European nations where same-sex adoption is currently legal. Sitting pretty in this cluster are arguably some of the world’s most liberal countries. So when you’re gay or lesbian with a ticking biological clock, which countries really are the most open?

When picturing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights landscape in countries like the Netherlands and Scandinavia, a Skinny Alley hedonism springs to mind. These nations are accepting, communicative, and, for lack of a more original word, liberal.

No surprise then that in 2006 the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) reported that 82% of Netherlands’ residents supported gay marriage, and 69% were for same-sex adoption. Sweden was up there with 71% pro marriage and 51% pro adoption, followed by Denmark, Belgium and Spain with figures at 56-69% and over 40% respectively. But a gap emerges when the issue shifts from marriage to building a family.

In the Netherlands in 2005, the then-Justice Minister, Piet Hein Donner, described the country’s approval of same-sex adoption as a well-meaning but potentially empty gesture. This was because, according to Carin Tiggeloven on Radio Netherlands Worldwide, no other country permitted the adoption of children by same-sex couples from other countries.

In Sweden, in August this year, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet raised the adoption question and Ulrika Westerlund, vice chair of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL), said that for Swedish same-sex couples adoption is significant, but for foreigners trying to adopt, progress is slow. On the plus side the newspaper said that Sweden’s largest adoption agency, Adoptionscentrum, was open to gay and lesbian parents and its spokesperson, Inga Näslund, stressed that homosexual couples should not be forgotten. Prospective gay parents in Norway have run into similar roadblocks regarding restrictions on international adoptions.

What of Europe’s other gay adoption-friendly nations?

The parliaments of Spain and Andorra approved adoption in 2005, with Belgium following suit in 2006, granting the same privileges to gay couples as heterosexuals. The United Kingdom took the plunge amidst Catholic uproar in 2005. The Icelandic parliament effected gay adoption rights in 2006, with Samtökin 78, Iceland’s LGBT organisation, saying that it gave the “queer community the same rights as heterosexuals.” Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Ireland, France and Germany permit ‘stepchild’ adoption, so that one partner may adopt the other’s biological child or children.

Looking at these facts and figures, what constitutes a truly liberal approach? Andorra, Belgium, Iceland, Spain and the UK seem to shine as unconditional supporters of same-sex adoption. Johnny Bobbin, an Australian-cum-Dutch resident, reveals some intriguing insights. He says: “There are some high-profile gay couples in the Netherlands who have adopted. Such exposure means same-sex adoption doesn’t seem so novel here.”

Amid speculation that some countries may close their adoption doors, Bobbin acknowledges the reality that the adoption pool could shrink, representing a step backwards. Fortunately, such flashes of regression are sometimes met with progression, such as Uruguay’s approval of same-sex adoption in September this year.

The right to adopt as a gay or lesbian couple is, at the very least, now a long-deserved possibility. Perhaps there is no ideal way by which to measure liberalism in this sociopolitical minefield. In any case, it seems safe to say that countries such as Spain, Andorra, Belgium, the UK and Iceland are leading the charge in transforming possibility into reality.