Gay and lesbian couples in France don't have equal family rights

Gay couples in France are resorting to drastic measures to have children, according to campaigners.

Couples were resorting to costly and legally precarious methods, said Philippe Rollandin, spokesman for APGL, the largest association representing homosexual parents in France.

Campaigners are also unhappy that the children of homosexual couples have less protection than the offspring of heterosexual pairs if one parent dies or the couple separates.

"Homosexual couples are becoming more dismayed and angry about this clear discrimination in France, particularly as we are seeing the situation changing so clearly in Europe," he said.

Unlike in the UK, where gay parents have equal rights over their child, in France only one – the biological or adoptive parent – has automatic parental rights, said Caroline Mecary, a specialist gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights lawyer.

This means the non-biological parent cannot make emergency health decisions, travel alone with the children or pass on their inheritance. Crucially, if the officially recognised parent dies, the child is, in legal terms, an orphan in the eyes of the state.

"One half of the couple has no legitimacy in the eyes of the law, which is bad for the parents but even worse for the children," she said. "They are left in a legal no-man's land."

Rollandin said a ban on gay couples adopting had resulted in a generation of "Thalys babies", named after the high-speed train line between France and Belgium, where women can legally obtain artificial insemination. The APGL estimates that about 70% of lesbian couples with children used artificial insemination, which can cost between €1,000 (£880) to €3,000 (£2,600) in Belgium and up to €€6,000 in Spain.

Male couples were increasingly resorting to paying surrogate mothers to have children, said Rollandin. About half use this method, costing up to €120,000. Lesbian and gay couples are also using matchmaking websites to meet other couples or donors in order to have children.

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