Church agency told to stop gay discrimination

An interesting case which has particular relevance with the current debate in Australia. Scotland's charity regulator has told a Catholic adoption agency that it has to stop discriminating against gay couples or be stripped of it's charitable status.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator has ruled that St Margaret's Children and Family Care Society in Glasgow is directly discriminating against LGBT people by excluding them from becoming adopters. 

The ruling follows a complaint from the National Secular Society. 

The Scottish Charity Regulator's head of registration, Martin Tyson, was quoted as saying on the BBC: 'We acknowledge the valuable service provided by this charity, but the fact is that all charities must comply with the law, including the Equality Act 2010.

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Alistair McBay, spokesperson in Scotland for the National Secular Society, said: ‘After the ruling in England by the Charity Commission, backed by the courts, that Catholic adoption agencies there were in breach of the Equality Act by denying their services to gay couples, it is logical that the Scottish charity regulator has reached the same decision about St Margaret's. 

‘This kind of crude discrimination is no longer acceptable in our society – and that goes double where the discrimination is, in effect, being largely financed by the public purse. 

‘If St Margaret's wishes to continue to provide services, it must remove these provisions from its constitution – this will be in the children's best interests. 

'In England, some of the Catholic agencies complied and are now providing their services to everyone without prejudice. more

This is further confirmation that the current draft bill before parliament here in Australia is out of step with what's going on elsewhere. Indeed, when churches do follow the same laws as the rest of us heathen, the world doesn't in fact end. I like too the mention of them being funded by the public purse, which is exactly what's happening here in Australia. Threatening to remove a churches charitable status and cut funding unless they obey the law is what the Gillard gov should be doing here.