Now, I personally think Americans should first worry about the children in need of families right here, on our own soil. But this news piece disturbed me for another reason. It seems that this Administration has sacrificed LGBTs again. Just a word of caution – I have not seen the text of the agreement (obviously), I am going only on what has been reported.

RIA Novosti (aka RIAN) reports (and it is seconded by ER.ru) that the bilateral agreement on cross-border adoption – now being negotiated – will go into force by the end of this year.

Earlier, the State Department reported that its team was going to Moscow toparticipate in the 4th stage of the negotiations over the new bilateral agreement on cross-border adoptions. This agreement has been in the works since earlier this year an adoptive family has sent a kid back to Moscow. The negotiations started Monday and ended yesterday.

If you'd like to know what p.o.'ed me about it, look under the fold.

Here's what Russian news (the two links above) sources are reporting.

Alina Levitskaya, the head of the Education and Science Ministry, who also led the Russian side in negotiations over the agreement, noted that among other hard issues in the negotiations was discussion of adoption by same-sex couples. She explained that state laws differ widely across the jurisdictions in the US, and many US states allow adoption by same-sex couples. The same is prohibited by Russian laws.

She stated that the two sides have come to agreement on language that will ensure that the agreement will bar same-sex adoptions. She said:

“Our colleagues from US have found the appropriate language that will not contradict the laws of various states and will preclude the possibility that a Russian child could be adopted by a same-sex American couple.”

(The system is preventing me from adding the Russian-language quote here. It was, however, taken from the ER.ru link above.)

She also stated that previously, the agreement had a very ambiguous statement, which did not address the possibility of adoption by opposite-sex couples.

While it's not clear to me exactly how adoptions by same-sex couples took place, I am guessing that usually a Russian official would be paid off to look the other way. The new agreement will mandate a certain number of accredited adoption agencies in the US to handle adoptions and monitor post-adoption conditions in the adoptive families. This way – I am guessing – the American agencies will be making sure that same-sex couples are excluded. And from what the Russian news are saying, it seems like the government agreed to this state of affairs.

Once again, I have not seen the agreement, I am just guessing how it will work from what was reported by the state-owned RIA Novosti. And it just pissed me off. That's all.