Sacked for nuclear-family views, court official fights back

Another magistrate has been punished for resisting the tidal wave of "gay" advances in Western nations.

According to the Christian Institute in the United Kingdom, Richard Page was dismissed as a magistrate for expressing his belief that children do best when they are brought up by a man and a woman.

A hearing has begun in the U.K. on charges that his opinion made him homophobic, a characterization he refuses to accept.

He said the removal was "illiberal and intolerant," and he's entitled to compensation for job discrimination, insisting he has a right to believe "a child needs a mother and a father."

He had been a magistrate for some 15 years. In England and Wales, there are 21,500 volunteer judicial office holders who serve in magistrates' courts. Magistrates do not require legal training or qualifications.

"I was portrayed as homophobic and I refute this. … I am not judging the people, I'm judging what’s best for the child," he told the tribunal.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is representing Page, said he was charged with being "prejudiced."

Williams said judicial officials did not like him explaining his case in public.

"This unmasks the face of the new political orthodoxy; it is unkind. It tries to silence opposing views and if it fails it crushes and punishes the person who holds those views," Williams said. "To remove someone like Richard from the bench is modern-day madness. He has a lifetime of public service and expertise in mental health. He is motivated by his Christian faith and a deep compassion for people."

The five-day hearing is before the Croydon Employment Tribunal. Page was removed in 2015 after he gave a media interview in which he said his adoption decisions are based on what's best for the child, which is to be with a mother and father.

John Allman, in a comment section on a U.K. website addressing the dispute, explained the crux of the problem.

"The old model of the adoption industry was that its customers were the children in need of adoptive parents. These customers, the children, were entitled to the best service available," he said. "The new model of the adoption industry has somehow become that the children are now the commodity supplied, and that the prospective adopters are the customers. This has given adoptive parents consumer rights, at least in theory, such as the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of protected characteristics.

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"The demotion of children, from customers to commodity, and the exaltation of the adopters, from commodity to customers, is itself a great evil."

WND reported a similar case in the U.S. against Gayle Myrick, a North Carolina magistrate who refused to perform same-sex weddings after a federal judge ordered same-sex couples should be allowed to get a marriage license.

Myrick proposed a change in her job responsibilities, but the state refused, and she was forced to retire.

The dispute went to court, and the state has agreed to pay a third of a million dollars to settle the lawsuit.

A federal judge ruled last year the state courts were "required by law" to accommodate Myrick's beliefs, leading to the settlement in January in which the state will provide Myrick back pay, retirement benefits and attorneys fees.

According to the non-profit group Becket, which defended Myrick, she was a "highly qualified and well-respected magistrate in North Carolina for many years who was forced to resign because of her religious beliefs."

"When same-sex marriage became legal, she didn't want to stop any couple from getting married, but she also knew that her religious beliefs prevented her from performing a same-sex wedding ceremony," Becket said. "Since performing weddings was a small part of her work, Gayle's immediate supervisor proposed a solution: shift Gayle's schedule by a couple hours so she wasn't working when marriage ceremonies were performed. However, the state government rejected this reasonable solution and forced Gayle to resign."

Myrick said she has always "wanted to find a way to protect everyone's dignity."

"The solution in my case would allow any couple to get lawfully married without facing rejection or delay, and magistrates with religious beliefs like me could step aside and still keep our jobs," she said.

Becket noted magistrates already routinely shifted their schedules for a variety of reasons, such as vacation, night classes and drug rehab.

The federal judge said the state's refusal was discrimination.