China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption denied on Thursday having received an adoption application from a U.S. gay couple.
An employee from China Centre for Children's Welfare and Adoption told the Global Times on Thursday that they only found out about Melissa Castro Wyatt's case after reading her article on how her application is against China's adoption rules on The Washington Post.
The article titled "I bumped into my fate, and against China's adoption rules" has sparked heated discussion online, in which she said that she was denied the chance to adopt a 4-year-old disabled Chinese boy by a Chinese adoption agency, since a same-sex couple "is one thing they will not consider."
The employee told the Global Times that when selecting adopters, adoption agencies would always take the kids' interest as the prime priority, which is the only rule.
"Our only goal and hope is that our kids can fit into the foreign countries," said the employee.
They refused to comment, however, on whether there was any ban on same-sex parents adopting.
On the center website's Q&A page for foreign adopters, one entry clearly states that the center will not look for adoptees for same-sex couples.
China's marriage law only accepts families formed by heterosexual couples, and homosexual families are not protected by law, the statement says, claiming that The Criteria for the Classification and Diagnosis of Mental Disorders in China lists homosexuality as a psychosexual disorder.
The Criteria for the Classification and Diagnosis of Mental Disorders as of 2001 no longer describes homosexuality as sexual perversion, but considers it to potentially be a sexual orientation disorder.
The statement also says that China's "traditional morality and customs" consider homosexuality an act against social norms and that since China's Adoption Law has a principle that an adoption should not go against social morality, foreign same-sex couples cannot adopt children in China.
Responding to the current situation of the boy, identified as Hu in Wyatt's article, who has "a small head circumference, mildly crossed eyes and a severe clubfoot," the center said that they had found another foreign family for him.
"We are all happy for Hu. He is 4 years old now, and usually kids at such age don't need to wait for so long to find a home," said the center, while refusing to provide any details of Hu's new family.
