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#Post#: 43--------------------------------------------------
ACTOR BLASTS 'GAY RIGHTS' THREAT TO ADOPTION AGENCY
By: Montraviatommygun Date: March 12, 2011, 7:42 am
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ACTOR BLASTS 'GAY RIGHTS' THREAT TO ADOPTION AGENCY
Tuesday May 20,2008
By Chris Riches ACTOR John Thomson has blasted Government
legislation that threatens the adoption service which changed
his life.
Vulnerable youngsters in Manchester have been found homes by the
Catholic Children’s Rescue Society for more than 100 years.
But last year the Government refused to waive new Equality Act
rules that ban adoption agencies from turning away homosexual
couples.
As the Catholic Church refuses to re-house children with gay or
lesbian couples, the service may be shut down by the end of the
year.
Yesterday Thomson, 39, said the service’s closure would be a
“disaster”.
The Cold Feet star, who lives a mile from the society’s offices
in Didsbury, said: “I was adopted from about four.
“My adoptive parents said they had chosen me and I was made to
feel special.”
When Thomson was 18, he went to drama college on the same road
as the adoption society.
He said: “I was encouraged to attend the charity’s annual fete
by Steve Coogan’s parents, Kath and Tony, who had adopted and
fostered from the society.
“While I was there, I met the Catholic sister who had cared for
me as a baby.
“I realised how grateful I was to have been put with such a
lovely family and to have had a good upbringing.”
When Thomson won £10,000 on a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
celebrity edition last year, he gave half the money to the
society and the other half to nearby children’s hospice, Francis
House.
He said: “These agencies are needed. If you don’t get adopted
you’re in care until you’re 18 and you miss out on the love that
I received.”
Society director Kathy Batt said the board of trustees would
consider all options, including closure and compromises, over
the next six weeks.
Agencies have until the end of the year to comply with the laws.
Ms Batt said: “The society as a whole is in no danger of
closing. Adoption is only one service we offer and we are very
committed to all our services.”
Catholic adoption agencies are said to find homes for 250
children each year.
However, three of the nation’s 13 Catholic agencies have already
been affected by the rules.
A Leeds agency has ceased its adoption service, while
organisations in Nottingham and Northampton have separated from
the diocese.
They have become secular bodies so that they can comply with the
legislation.
But the rescue society, which provides services for people of
any or no faith, is so strongly linked to the Salford diocese it
refuses to break away.
Fr Phil Sumner, who sits on the Interfaith Forum in Oldham,
said: “The society has been referred to as a jewel in the crown
of the diocese.
“I hope a compromise can be reached.”
(HTM) http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/45112/Actor-blasts-gay-rights-threat-to-adoption-agency
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