A Christian magistrate in the UK who was fired from his position due to his views on gay adoption has lost his appeals court case.
The Christian Post reports that Richard Page, a magistrate for the Kent and Medway National Health Service Trust, was fired after he stated his opinion on national TV that children are better off when they are placed in a family with a mother and a father rather than in a family comprised of a same-sex couple.
After making this statement, Page was accused of being “biased and prejudiced against single sex adopters.”
Page has defended his beliefs by stating, “My responsibility as a magistrate, as I saw it, was to do what I considered best for the child, and my feeling was therefore that it would be better if it was a man and woman who were the adopted parents.”
The Croydon Employment Tribunal, which denied Page’s appeal, maintained that he was fired not for his views on gay adoption, but because he participated in television media appearances to discuss his views on parenting.
Page remains committed to continuing his legal fight despite this recent setback. He is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre. Andrea Williams of the Centre said that the tribunal’s ruling “makes a mockery of the freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and the rule of law.”
“There is no real difference between suppressing dissent and suppressing an expression of dissent. To split hairs in this way makes no sense,” Williams continued.
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