The Government has announced that there will be no exemptions to the Equality Act 2006. This means that religious adoption agencies will not be able to discriminate against potential parents on the grounds of sexual orientation. However, it has also been announced that there will be a transition period of 21 months, to give time for the adoption agencies in question to adjust to the new regulations and to ensure none of the expertise of the Catholic Adoption agencies are lost.

Last week, in common with the General Secretaries of all the major trade unions, NUS wrote to Tony Blair expressing our concern about the proposed exemptions. Read the letter here.

Here is a run down of what’s being said and by whom.

“We felt six or twelve months would be a reasonable period for agencies to retrain their staff but if it takes eighteen months to reverse a thousand years of prejudice, we can probably live with that.”
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall

“This is the right outcome because it puts the interests of children first. We reject discrimination in all its forms, particularly when that deprives our most vulnerable children of a stable, loving and secure home”
Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Education

The approach on adoption is a positive breakthrough in eliminating discrimination while recognising the need for a practical approach that ensures the most vulnerable children are found loving homes. This approach should be welcomed by everyone on what has been an extremely complex issue.”
Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP Secretary of State Communities and Local Government

"We are, of course, deeply disappointed that no exemption will be granted to our agencies on the grounds of widely-held religious conviction and conscience.”
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor

"It isn't just Catholics - anyone whose faith means they do not believe there is a moral equivalence between single-sex couples and heterosexual couples will find themselves affected. There are also large numbers of people of no faith at all who happen to believe that there is no such moral equivalence who stand to be criminalised because of that belief."
Spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Media Office

“Religion and belief are deeply private and personal issues and they should remain so. We must defend the right of religious belief and expression but we must not impose a chosen religious belief upon others, especially if such imposition diminishes civil liberties.”
Gemma Tumelty, National President

"There is no place in our society for discrimination. That's why I support the right of gay couples to apply to adopt, like any other couple. And that way there can be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering public-funded services from regulations that prevent discrimination."
Rt Hon Tony Blair, Prime Minister

“The government has now got this right. There has been no breach of the fundamental principle of an end to discrimination on grounds of sexuality, but the rules allow for sensible transitional arrangements that can ensure that there is no disruption to services for vulnerable children. Ministers have rightly listened to unions, backbench MPs and pressure groups who have urged this approach. The regulations should now get the overwhelming support of MPs.”
Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary

"There is no place for discrimination in a liberal society."
Sir Menzies Campbell, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

"On the issue of the Catholic adoption agencies, I don't think personally that it is right to give them a block exemption from the law, because otherwise we will have other people wanting block exemptions from the law."
David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party

“A small group of fundamentalist Christians have led a wicked campaign of disinformation about these regulations, making claims that anyone who bothered to read them could see were false.”
Revd Richard Kirker, President , Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM)

“We applaud the government for standing firm on equal treatment even when the going appeared tough"
Liberty

"In legislating to protect and promote the rights of particular groups, the government is faced with the delicate but important challenge of not thereby creating the conditions within which others feel their rights have been ignored or sacrificed, or in which the dictates of personal conscience are put at risk.
The rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well meaning."
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury

"All six of the world's major religions are opposed to homosexual practice. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all teach that homosexual practice is sinful."
Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA

“The Church of England's own adoption society welcomes gay people. It has done for eight years. In our case we were the first gay couple in Wales to be allowed to foster our boy by Barnardo's. The Catholic church has allowed it elsewhere. Cardinal Levada, who's become the Vatican's doctrinal enforcer, when he was Archbishop of San Francisco allowed at least three children from Catholic agencies to be placed with gay couples."
Rev Martin Reynolds

"Tony Blair has given us 20 months to adapt 2,000 years of Christian teaching. It's unacceptable."
Gerald Howarth MP, Shadow Minister for Defence

“Look outside this building tonight, listen to the small but vocal crowd, and imagine how it feels to walk through that crowd and see so much prejudice directed towards you simply because you are gay, simply because you are yourself, simply because you exist. It is rank hypocrisy to object to this order, having argued for the very same protection for religious groups only a few months ago.”
Lord Waheed Alli

“The only issue here is what is best for children, our only consideration is to find the parents or parent who will give each child the best chances in life. The race, gender, age or sexual orientation of the parents does not matter. Their ability to give an often troubled child a loving upbringing does.”
Martin Narey, Chief Executive, Barnardo’s

“The last few weeks have seen a dramatic turn in the nature of the debate surrounding homophobia and faith. No longer should we be talking about a right to discriminate, but of a right not to be discriminated against regardless of religious reason.”
Scott Cuthbertson, LGBT Officer (Open Place)

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