About 25 same-sex couples in Croatia have children - about 15 lesbian couples with their own biological children and a dozen couples who have adopted, Saturday's Jutarnji List daily quoted Daniel Martinovic, president of the Dugine obitelji (Rainbow Families) NGO, as saying.

Since 2014, when the Life Partnership Act went into force, only three same-sex couples have applied for adoption and they have all been turned down, he said after the High Administrative Court ruled this week that all same-sex couples who are registered life partners have the same adoption rights as heterosexual couples.

The court thus overruled the relevant ministry’s position that same-sex couples could be not assessed for adoption.

However, Martinovic said, same-sex families with children have been a reality in Croatia even before the ruling was delivered.

About 15 lesbian couples have biological children as they can resort to artificial insemination in one of the states allowing it for same-sex couples or to at-home insemination, he said, adding that a dozen same-sex couples have adopted children.

Asked how they managed to do that, Martinovic said that in the past six years, after the first three couples who applied for adoption were turned down, some adopted as singles, which is possible in Croatia, after which they registered as life partners.

Following this week’s ruling, their partners and the partners of those with biological children will apply for adoption so that they can be legally the parents of the children they are already raising, Jutarnji List said.