Marcelo Gutierres
Reporter Agência Brasil

São Paulo – A São Paulo court has ruled that Vasco Pereira da Gama, 33, and Dorival Pereira de Carvalho Júnior, 41, a homosexual couple, can adopt a child.

The decision is final and comes at the end of a normal legal process which took approximately five months. During that time Gama and Carvalho Junior met with a psychologist, social assistances and a public prosecutor. In his ruling, the judge, Júlio César Spoladore Domingos, based the decision on a Psychology Council resolution (Resolução Nº 1/99 do Conselho Federal de Psicologia), which declared that "homosexuallity was not a disease, a disturbance or a perversion." ("a homossexualidade não constitui doença, distúrbio nem perversão".)

Gama and Carvalho Junior live in Cantanduva, state of São Paulo, where they have an agency for models and a beauty salon. They write social columns in local newspapers. Gama told an Agencia Brasil reporter that they have lived together for 13 years and consider themselves "married."

According to Everaldo Galvão, the couple's lawyer, the decision permitting a homosexual couple to adopt a child is a first. "In the past, homosexual individuals, as individuals, have gotten permission to adopt a child," he explained. Galvão called the decision to allow a homosexual couple to adopt "a victory for citizenship."

Gama and Carvalho Junior say they want to adopt a little girl between the ages of two and four.

Translator: Allen Bennett