One in ten children are now adopted by same-sex couples

NEARLY one in ten adopted kids are now placed with gay or lesbian couples.

A total of 430 out of 4,350 went to same-sex adopters in the year to March 2017.

The proportion placed by local authorities in England has leapt from 5.7 per cent to 9.9 over the past five years.

Of last year’s 430 children, 240 went to male couples and 190 to female.

Pioneers Barrie and Tony Drewitt- Barlow became the UK’s first gay dads to adopt through surrogacy in 1999.

They now have five kids.

Same-sex couples won legal rights to adopt in 2005, after a fiercely contested Bill was passed.

PM Theresa May initially opposed it, but later said “a stable, family environment” was the most important factor for a child.

Statistics from the Department for Education show local authorities increasingly turning to gay and lesbian homes for youngsters in care.

Equality group Stonewall called the figures “encouraging”.

But Andrea Williams, from Christian Concern, said: “It denies children a mother or father and amounts to social experimentation on the most vulnerable in society.