A DUNFERMLINE man has called for a change in the law to permit him to be adopted by his stepfather.

Nathan Sparling, 27, a political advisor who has also worked as a drag artist, wants reform to allow his stepdad Brian, who brought him up from the age of 13, to legally adopt him.

He wrote to his local MSP asking her to speak to the Scottish Government on his behalf and is now considering a campaign to bring about change.

"My step dad got a tattoo recently with the dates of birth of his four children and two of them, myself and my sister, are step kids and that brought it home," said Nathan, who is head of policy and campaigning at Edinburgh-based charity HIV Scotland.

"It got me thinking about it again and I spoke to a few people and they said 'Why don't you do something about this and get it changed?'.

"I had looked at it when I was about 18 or 19 and, at that time, they say you can't do something and you don't think you can do anything about it.

"My background has been a political advisor in both Westminster and Holyrood and I now know how to change things.

"Scotland and the rest of the UK are quite behind. I investigated the law and the Adoption and Children's Act of 2001 states that you have to be under the age of 18 so that is the law that needs to be amended."

After making an initial enquiry, Nathan was told that the government would look into the possibility as part of a review of family law. However, it was later announced in the Scottish Parliament that there were no plans to change the current position.

"That is the most recent development and was slightly disappointing," he said.

After receiving a lot of positive messages about his initial efforts, Nathan said: "It is definitely not something I am going to leave and I will look at the next steps.

"I have had contact from a lot of people from across the UK. A lot of people are saying they would love to be adopted by their step parents.

"There have been a lot of really heartfelt stories from people talking about their love for step parents and what it would mean for both parties involved to have that bit of paper to legally recognise that parenthood.

"A lot of people are quite distressed that someone they call their father is put down as stepfather on legal documents.

"On a psychological level, it is problematic as well because it makes people feel a lack of belonging to someone."

Back in 2014, the Press spoke to Nathan about his decision to give up life as a parliamentary researcher to move to London to be a drag queen, Nancy Clench.

Now back in Scotland, living and working in Edinburgh, he said his stage performances still take place occasionally.

"I am still doing a few of them, but mainly charity gigs," he added. "I do an annual one to raise money for the child development centre in High Valleyfield and we have raised about £6,000 over the last couple of years doing an annual gig at East End Park.

"One of my baby brothers is autistic so we have been raising money for the centre. The next one is in September."