Elton John's adoption hopes have been quashed by a Ukrainian official. Elton was visiting and performing at an orphanage in the town of Makeyevka outside Donetsk as part of the work he does for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and expressed interest in adopting a young orphan named Lev.
The AP reports that it won't be possible: "The country's Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko told The Associated Press that adoptive parents must be married and Ukraine does not recognize homosexual unions as marriage…Pavlenko also said John was too old. The singer is 62 and Ukrainian law requires a parent to be no more than 45 years older than an adopted child. 'Foreign citizens who are single have no right to adopt children … and the age difference between the adopter and the child cannot be more than 45 years,' Pavlenko said. 'The law is the same for everybody: for a president, for a minister, for Elton John.' … Pavlenko said Ukraine was grateful for the singer's charity work and expressed hope that his desire to adopt Lev would spur the domestic adoption of more children with health problems, which is still rare in Ukraine."
