Practice of human rights 

These maps are often deceptive. For example, it shows countries in which adoption is possible for same-sex couples. However, in practice this is far more complicated. IVF is only possible for same-sex couples in a few countries, and for male same-sex couples even less.

Moreover, in countries like Germany, same-sex mothers are not automatically recognised on a birth certificate. Instead, they only consider the person who carried the baby to be the legal parent, the other parent must go through a process of 'second-parent adoption'. This may take several years, requires inspection visits by social workers and other authorities. Whilst waiting for a court to grant the adoption, the parent cannot travel out of the country with the child, may have difficulty taking them to hospital, and overall, has no rights to the child. This is extremely serious, for example if the parent who carried the child dies or the couple separate. 

Germany is just one of many countries that have the rule of 'second-parent adoption'. In many of these countries, if a heterosexual couple is married, the husband's name is automatically put on the child's birth certificate even if he is not the biological father! Similarly, step-fathers do not have to do 'second-parent adoption'. It is a clear example of active discrimination of same-sex families.