Over 100 LGBTIQ+ organisations and advocates call for end to religious discrimination
Image: Image: Scott Morrison / Facebook.
More than one hundred community organisations and advocates have signed a joint statement calling for an end to laws that permit religious discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people.
The statement, which was organised by Community Activists Against Homophobia (CAAH), comes ahead of the government’s impending Religious Discrimination Act, which advocates fear may undermine protections for LGBTIQ+ people.
National PFLAG spokesperson, Shelley Argent OAM, was one of the statement’s signatories.
“When LGBTI people face discrimination and hatred, God weeps. The Bible should never be used as a weapon of abuse against anyone, including LGBTI people,” she said.
“When some religious leaders talk about ‘religious freedom’ what they mean is maintaining their power and privilege to disadvantage and vilify our LGBTI children.
“As parents of LGBTI people we are determined to foster a society where everyone has equal rights and protections.
“That means not allowing discrimination and hate speech across the board, including by people who say they speak in the name of God.”
The statement calls on the Coalition and Labor to commit to removing all anti-discrimination exemptions that allow religious organisations to discrimination on the basis of sexuality, sex, and gender identity.
It also urges politicians to rule out any new exemptions in a proposed Religious Discrimination Act.
Just.equal spokesperson, Rodney Croome, said the LGBTIQ+ community wouldn’t abide attacks on their rights and dignity under the cover of religious freedom.
“For over twenty years, my home state of Tasmania has prohibited anti-LGBTI discrimination by all religious organisations and anti-LGBTI hate speech in the name of religion, without the sky falling in,” he said.
“I want all LGBTI Australians to have the same level of legally-guaranteed safety and inclusion LGBTI Tasmanians enjoy.
“We call on both major parties to rule out ‘religious freedom’ being used to undo the gains made with marriage equality, and to commit to removing exemptions in national law that allow discrimination in God’s name.”
To read the full statement and to see the list of signatories, click here.
Just a thought… if the conservative ‘hate-brigade’ have their dream-come-true for the legisation of irresponsible ‘freedom-of-speech’ (to their ‘standards’), then ifever someone from one religion makes vindictive hate-mongering commentary about another religion, which ends up engaging hate against that religion, then those legislators will only have themselves to blame for further social unrest bred from further irresponsive wording that will allowed to be said by law.
At the end of the day, anyone in the free world (and most would rank Australia as a free World country) is free to choose and practice their own personal religious beliefs (or not, as in Atheism). On the other hand human beings cannot choose what sex, skin colour, or sexual orientation they will live their lives with. The latter trumps the former, so as a free nation we should end all discrimination against others based on religious belief in Australia.
Religion should be about love not hate…
“God weeps”? For the considerable percentage of LGBTQIA+ people who do not subscribe to religious beliefs, this idea is simply nonsense.
It is time for public discourse about human rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights, to be divorced from religious beliefs. Notions of ‘god’ are irrelevant to secular law.
““When LGBTI people face discrimination and hatred, God weeps. The Bible should never be used as a weapon of abuse against anyone, including LGBTI people,” she said.”
Excellent quote, point well made.
The proposed religious freedom laws would certainly enable some terrible things to be said about LGBTQI folks. What I find interesting is that they’ll also enable a lot of nasty things to be said about religious people. If you go back to the 1950’s, 40’s, 30’s and into the previous century you find that “white” Australia was in fact far more divided and fractured than modern multicultural Australia, no matter what Pauline Hanson reckons. There were open street brawls between catholics and protestants. The histories of the various “speaker corners” around Australia often refer to the fact that these were often used to promote sectarian hatred between different groups of Christians.
If the religious freedom laws get up I for one look forward to testing them out, mentioning to catholics that they are hell-bound idolators (Israel Folau says so) while telling protestants they are hell-bound because they’re not baptised into the catholic church (catholic doctrine says so). I expect to be immune from all prosecution and will threaten my employer with human rights action if they call me out for harassment.
Thousands of other atheist ratbags doing the same thing might even provoke a change of heart from the likes of Eric Abetz about whether these laws are good or bad.
I might not do that because I like my workplace and the people in it, but if I’m having a bad day they’ll want to look out.
Someone saying that God weeps when LGBTI people are discriminated against does not make it so. It would certainly be contrary to what the Bible does say.
There is no need for new religious freedom laws to enable people to say nasty things about Christians, just read many of the pro LGBTI posts on Facebook now. Only LGBTI people appear to be protected from being offended!
As you have pointed out Christians have disagreed with each other for centuries but while there have been times of intolerance in the past, we have learnt to cope with offensive statements both from within and without the Christian church.