Friday, March 5, 2021
Mr Page was a magistrate of strong Christian conviction. After many years’ blameless services in that role he began to hear family cases and in 2014 he presided over an adoption application by a same-sex couple. All the other factors pointed in favour, but Page refused to sign off on it on the grounds of his religious beliefs. He was sworn to act in the best interests of the child, he said, and in his view that was to provide it with a mother and a father because that was “natural”. It was not that he was flatly against same-sex adoptions