LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA – Voters rejected a measure last week that would have allowed gay couples in Slovenia to adopt children under certain conditions.

The legislation, which was drafted by the former Yugoslavian state’s previous liberal government, would have permitted same-sex couples to adopt biological children born to one of the partners, but would have forbidden adoption of a third party’s biological children.

In the usually tolerant country, approximately 55 percent of voters in the national referendum rejected the measure.

A coalition of religious and conservative Catholic, Muslim, and Serbian Orthodox communities drafted a petition in advance of the referendum, in which they stated, “Marriage and family are of utmost importance for the development of the human person and society.

For this reason, we all have an obligation to protect the values of marriage and of family as a community of a husband and a wife, and children.”