Barcelona couple first gays to adopt in Spain-media

MADRID, Oct 1 (Reuters) A gay couple in Barcelona have become the first pair in Spain to adopt a child under new laws giving married homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexuals, Spanish media reported.

Newspapers quoted Carme Figueras, counsellor for welfare and family at Catalonia's regional government, as saying 28 gay couples had applied to adopt under last year's law -- most of them male couples.

Other gay couples in Spain have become legal parents of children born to one of them naturally but the Barcelona pair are the first to adopt a child with no blood links.

''The most important thing in adoption is that the child should benefit, that he or she will be loved, looked after, respected and not mistreated,'' the papers quoted Figueras as saying yesterday.

Catalonian regional government officials were not available to confirm the reports.

Legalising gay marriage was one of the highest-profile changes Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero made when he came to power in 2004, putting him on a collision course with the Catholic Church.

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