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I’ve thought about this a little and I’ve come to the conclusion that I can see the argument both ways. On the one hand, I agree that there is no place for discrimination and yes, I myself do not believe in ‘faith’, whatever that is. I do support gay adoption and I think its good that the government is endorsing it.
On the other hand, I’m not sure it is the place of governments to mess with the personal beliefs of others, provided they are not encouraging hatred or the notion of ‘evil’ in themselves. After all, the Catholic and Anglican adoption agencies have essentially been doing ‘good’, it just so happens that they are excluding a group from adopting on the basis of their beliefs. Is it a productive thing to force them to do something they are ‘morally’ uncomfortable with and will this lead to better outcomes (your familiarity with the depth of that word and the difficulty of securing it in all fields of social policy, makes me choose that word) for the tiny abandoned nippers themselves?
Hmm
No. I don’t see how labelling something as a ‘belief’ makes it condonable. They are essentially saying that gay parents (the plural is important) are inadequate at parenting. The truth is, that this does have an effect on people’s views (especially young Christians) of gay people; it is damaging. They may not state it explicitly (there would be an uproar if they did), but it is implied. Being a belief, does not prevent it from being prejudiced. But what really tops it off in my mind, is that they allow single gay people to adopt, but not couples. Surely, if they are so fucking righteous, they would not close agencies just because the law could lead to them having to consider gay couples as parents!!!
And a note on outcomes: in the long run, the best outcome is to remove all notion in our society that religiously based prejudice is somehow acceptable, and make the world a better place. In time, they would forget about it being an issue and it would be just like all the other bits of the bible that have fallen to the power of rationality and the shifting sands of real moral standards. As with the status of women, as with the acceptability of slavery, etc…
And a note on privately held beliefs: sure, the law isn’t going to change their beliefs, but we are talking about a public service here, that is what the law is about. They can discriminate all they want in private, but not when tax payers money is involved.