Dutch lesbian foster couple go into hiding with son after Turkish protests
A Dutch lesbian couple has gone into hiding with their foster son after the boy’s biological parents went on television in Turkey and said that they consider the pair morally unfit to take care of their child.
The row is threatening to overshadow an official visit by the Turkish prime minister to the Netherlands next week.
The Associated Press reports the Dutch vice prime minister told reporters on Friday that political interference from Turkey would be “inappropriate.”
He praised the foster parents for taking on a “child in danger” and defended Dutch social service policies as discriminating only on the basis of parental ability.
The nine-year-old boy was removed from his biological parents’ care in the Netherlands while he was still a baby.
There’s currently a shortage of Islamic foster families in the Netherlands.
Turkish children have been placed in Christian families as well as with gay parents, both in Holland and in Belgium – which has caused anger in traditional parts of Turkish society.
