Edinburgh official apologizes for ‘distress’ caused to grandparents who opposed homosexual adoption

Edinburgh, United Kingdom, May 7, 2009 - Edinburgh city council chiefs have admitted mistakes in the treatment of the grandparents of two children placed with a homosexual couple for adoption, apologizing for the "distress" social workers may have caused.

A social worker allegedly told the grandparents that they would have no further contact with the children after they went public with their objections to a homosexual adoption, the Scotsman reports.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the two grandparents, aged 59 and 46, were told they were too old and unfit to care for their grandchildren, whom they had been caring for because of their mother’s struggles with heroin use.

The two grandparents defended their custody rights against four successive legal challenges from the local adoption and foster council, but abandoned their legal fight because of potential legal fees and concerns for the stability of their grandchildren’s lives.

However, they were later informed that their grandchildren would be placed with a homosexual couple. The grandparents claimed that social workers told them their access to the children would be restricted if they opposed the homosexual adoption. They were allegedly threatened that they would never see their grandchildren again because they had made public the fact of the adoption.

The Scotsman reported on Sunday that chief social work officer Michelle Miller, replying to the grandparents’ official complaint, said she could not comment on the allegedly threatening conversation.

However, she said it would have been better if staff had held a face-to-face meeting with the grandparents.

"I apologize for any distress that not doing so may have caused," she said.

According to the Scotsman, the grandmother said "We just want our grandchildren back. The council has not behaved at all well."