I’ve been ousted for being Christian, says NHS chief who opposed gay adoption
‘It is not a sin to be homosexual’
AN NHS director sacked for speaking out against gay adoption claimed yesterday that he was ‘ousted from public service’ for being a Christian.
Richard Page, 71, has brought a religious discrimination case against the NHS Trust Development Authority after losing his job for comments he made as a magistrate.
Yesterday he told an employment tribunal that he believes ‘sex outside of marriage is sinful’.
He said he was not anti-gay, but added: ‘It is a sin to have sex outside of marriage, which necessarily includes all homosexual practices.’
Mr Page was suspended as a director of the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust after he said it was better for a child to be brought up by both a man and a woman.
He made the comments in his role as a magistrate when considering an application by a samesex couple to adopt a child.
He rejected a claim in a social worker’s report that homosexual couples made better adoptive parents than straight couples.
Last year he appeared on numerous television programmes in an attempt to defend his position. On ITV’s This Morning, where he said he was opposed to gay marriage, presenter Piers Morgan accused him of being a homophobe, a claim Mr Page denied. Later he was sacked from the magistracy for serious misconduct by then-justice secretary Michael Gove and Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, who said his comments suggested he was ‘ biased and prejudiced against single sex adopters’. A few days later the NHS Trust Development Authority suspended him from his role at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust.
He claims that he has been barred from public duty for being a good Christian and is suing the NHS for discrimination, harassment and victimisation for his Christian beliefs under the Equality Act 2010.
Mr Page, who served as a magistrate for 15 years, submitted in a witness statement to the Croydon Employment Tribunal in South London that the reason for his rejection of the gay couple’s application was that he did not find the social worker’s argument ‘persuasive’.
He also noted that the couple were attempting to adopt in Eng- land to sidestep legislation in their own country – something he described as ‘adoption shopping’.
In his statement to the tribunal, Mr Page said: ‘My career as a magistrate, and my career as an NHS director, were both devoted to public service.
‘I exercised all my duties properly, according to the law and my conscience, and not according to any ideology. The Bible states that a God-honouring relationship is for one man and one woman to be united in the life-long union of marriage. God encourages procreation in the context of this relationship.
‘I am not homophobic. It is not a sin to be a homosexual. It is a sin to have sex outside of marriage, which necessarily includes all homosexual practices.
‘I strongly believe that it is best for any child to be raised in a traditional family with a mother and a father.
‘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.’
During cross- examination, Mr Page told the tribunal panel: ‘What I am saying is it is normal for a man and woman to have a child. My job as a magistrate was to do what was best for the child.’
When asked whether this meant he was excluding gay parents, he answered: ‘Yes.’
The hearing continues.