Rev Sharon Ferguson, Chief Executive of LGCM, said today she was delighted that the Charity Commission had sided with common sense, and in support of human rights, in ruling against Catholic Care in its appeal to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples who wish to provide loving and caring homes to hard to place children.
On Thursday 19 August the Charity Commission announced its decision to not give consent to the charity Catholic Care to amend its charitable objects to restrict its adoption services to heterosexual prospective parents only. The independent regulator of charities in England and Wales has considered the evidence and the relevant law and concluded that it would not be justified in the circumstances for the charity to discriminate in this way.
Rev Ferguson said: “For too long public opinion has been influenced by the notion that lesbians and gay men cannot be good parents and that they would influence the child’s sexual orientation. This unfounded belief is homophobia, pure and simple, and therefore LGCM congratulates the Charities Commission in its ruling today.
“It is sad and regrettable that Christian adoption agencies have to be forced to enter the twenty-first century. Agencies like Catholic Care should be more concerned to place children in loving, stable, and committed homes, than with hanging on to homophobic ideas.”
