Christian magistrate fights sacking over gay adoption
hearing in Croydon, South London, he insisted he was not biased against gay couples but said: “It is normal for a man and a woman to have a child and therefore it’s best for a child to be brought up by a man and a woman.
“Homosexual activity is a sin. Not being a homosexual, but homosexual activity. It’s like prostitution or having sex outside of marriage is a sin. Homosexual activity is Biblically a sin.”
He maintained he did not apply his Christian beliefs to the adoption case.
But he acknowledged: “Obviously I’m a Christian and my thought process must be based on Christianity.
“Every magistrate and judge have to make their own decisions on their own thought processes.”
The storm first blew up after Mr Page, sitting with two other magistrates, considered an application by a single-sex couple to adopt a child in Kent in July 2014.
He rejected a social worker’s report that gay couples made better adoptive parents than straight ones and turned down the application.
A complaint was made by his colleagues and he was reprimanded by then-Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and then Lord Chancellor Michael Gove.
He gave interviews to several media outlets and was reminded three times of rules about members of the judiciary speaking to the press.
After he appeared on BBC TV’s Breakfast show, he was referred to a disciplinary panel and he was later sacked for serious misconduct.
He was also suspended as a nonexecutive director at Kent and Medway NHS Trust.
District Judge Martin Parry, who was on the judiciary disciplinary panel which dealt with Mr Page following the BBC interview, told the hearing: “The views he gave on TV could be perceived as bias.”
The discrimination case continues.