The Daily Mail campaign against gay adoption continues

Sadly, the Daily Mail continues its hate campaign. On Friday they published an attack on the social worker who’s been dealing with the gay adoption case in Scotland. They claim that the social worker threatened the family with refusing contact.

Link to Daily Mail story about the social worker

It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad that – whilst defending a heroin addict – they see fit to mention that the social worker has two children by different fathers. But it didn’t end there. Their columnist Peter Hitchens wrote the following piece in his column about how we “gays” have been shown tolerance and we respond with tyranny. Seriously unhinged stuff here.

Link to the Peter Hitchens column

And to top it all, an anonymous millionaire and the Church of Scotland have decided to support the grandparents in a legal battle against the adoption.

Link to article about millionaire support

Thankfully The Independent showed a more balanced view of the issue, even though they decided to turn the issue of how the Daily Mail had reported the story into a left / right politics issue, which I don’t think was the right angle for the story but makes much nicer reading than anything the Daily Mail has published.

Link to The Independent story

The whole thing has been incredible. Over at the New Family Social online discussion it has generated a wave of emails like nothing I have ever seen before. It’s weird, because Glen and I have been through a rollercoaster of emotions which is very similar to what other members describe. After the initial outrage, there’s been sadness about the case and the consequences it may have for the couple involved (and the children, of course) and also our own situations. People have reported a shift in attitude among co-workers and other people they know. I experienced something similar when I told a colleague of mine and she responded saying that it was normal for people to react like that. I also sent an email about the story to a friend who is a Daily Mail reader and she hasn’t even acknowledged it. After the sadness, though, there’s been some feeling of “what are we doing?”, “could this happen to us too if we are matched?” and even some doubts about whether what we are doing is right for the children. I must acknowledge here the beautiful message that one of the NFS members left reassuring everyone that we are doing the right thing, and highlighting her very positive experience as an adopter. And she is absolutely right, of course. Like I said in a message to the NFS board, in a way the issue of gay adoption and the effect that being adopted by a same-sex couple may have on children is similar to children from different ethnic origin or nationality who grow up in, say, a predominantly white environment. They may get bullied or suffer some sort of discrimination because of it, but it doesn't make them or their parents "guilty" of being from a different ethnic origin or nationality. No, it makes those parents and children part of the variety of that community. Just like those parents will need to prepare their children for the fact that some people out there will dislike them for what they are, we will need to prepare our children
for the fact that some people (Daily Mail readers, it turns out) will
disapprove of their parents (not them).

Anyway, we also heard from Miranda on Friday. She said she’d been working on our report and she’ll be in touch this week. So here’s hoping we have some positive news to report soon!