NHS axed me because I opposed gay adoption claims Christian boss
CHRISTIAN health boss accused the NHS of religious discrimination yesterday after he was suspended for opposing adoption by gay couples.
Richard Page, 71, told an employment tribunal he was penalised for defending the role of the traditional family.
The father of three said he had worked with many gay people during his 20-year health service career and had never questioned their ability nor style of life.
But Mr Page said he was sent home in his role as a director after he opposed an adoption by a same-sex couple while sitting as a magistrate.
Employers Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust said his stance “undermined” the confidence of staff – particularly those who were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Mr Page – who was also sacked from his role as a JP in 2014 by then Lord Chancellor Michael Gove – told the employment tribunal panel that conventional couples make better parents.
He said: “It is best for any child to be raised in a traditional family with a mother and a father.
“God had good reasons to make the family include both a man and a woman – not just because the child, physically, needs both but also because of the respective ways men and women think.
“The child needs the complementary roles offered by both parents, male and female, psychological as well as physical.
“Consequently, I take a sceptical view of same-sex adoptions, or adoptions by a single person.”
Mr Page told the tribunal hearA ing in Croydon, south London, that his problems started after he rejected a gay couple’s adoption application.
The two other magistrates on the panel complained that he was prejudiced and he was criticised by Mr Gove, before dismissal.
He was then dubbed homophobic in a TV interview.
The tribunal heard he was then suspended from his job as a nonexecutive NHS director, which he took up following his retirement after 20 years as finance director.
He told the employment tribunal : “At no point during my time in the NHS was my work or beliefs about homosexuality criticised.
“I have now been dismissed for something outside my role as an NHS director and I struggle to understand how my comments are relevant to my position.
“I worked with numerous homosexuals.
“They were on the board of the NHS, though I never commented on their sexuality because them being homosexuals was not relevant for the decisions we had to make.”
The tribunal case continues.