Blair Relents in Gay Rights Battle
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LONDON — Prime Minister Blair caved in last night in the battle over homosexual adoption in the face of a full-blown Cabinet revolt.
In a stark illustration of his diminishing authority, Mr. Blair has been forced to accept a deal that will rule out any exemptions for Roman Catholic adoption agencies from gay-rights laws.
Mr. Blair had infuriated the Cabinet by declaring that he wanted to strike a compromise after the Catholic Church threatened to close its adoption agencies if it was made illegal for them to turn away same-sex couples.
But a series of Cabinet heavyweights made clear that they would oppose any watering down of the sexual orientation regulations, which come into force in April as part of the Equality Act.
After several days of intense negotiations, Mr. Blair is understood to have accepted that it would be impossible to reach an agreement to offer an opt-out from a law that makes it illegal, when providing goods and services, to discriminate against people because they are gay.
