Ukraine Can't Go For Elton, David and Lev

[Steel2Velvet]

The kid might one day imagine what life could have been like ....

Elton John won't be able to adopt a 14-month-old HIV-positive child from Ukraine because the pop star is too old and isn't married, the government said Monday.

Adoption and gay rights advocates expressed regret about the determination by Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko, while a children's charity had reservations about John's weekend announcement that he and his male partner, David Furnish, wanted to adopt the boy.

John announced his desire after meeting the boy, named Lev, while touring an orphanage Saturday as part of an anti-AIDS charity project.

"I don't know how we do that, but he has stolen my heart. And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home," John said.

But Pavlenko told The Associated Press that the adoption will not happen because adoptive parents must be married and because the pop star is too old.

The singer is 62 and Ukrainian law requires a parent to be no more than 45 years older than an adopted child.

John and Furnish tied the knot in 2005 in one of the first legalized civil unions in Britain, but Pavlenko said Ukraine does not recognize gay unions as marriage.

"Elton John will not be able to adopt a Ukrainian child and if he files that request we will unfortunately deny it," Pavlenko said. "The law is the same for everybody: for a president, for a minister, for Elton John."

John spokesman Gary Farrow declined to comment.

[phil]

Lets see.... live out your life in some Ukrainian orphanage, or let an international star give you a loving life. Are these people kidding me!

[Jenny]

I have heard that Elton is quite the diva. It's hard to believe he'd want someone around who is more demanding than him!