WayOut wins discrimination case
WayOut rural youth group has won its Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) case against a Christian Brethren-run youth camp for discrimination.
WayOut – a group for rural GLBT young people – took owners of Christian Youth Camps to VCAT after they were refused use of the camp in 2007 on the basis that the group was promoting homosexuality.
WayOut argued that businesses run by churches or religious groups should not be exempt from state laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexuality.
According to ninemsn.com.au, Christian Youth Camps has been ordered to pay $5000 compensation.
The decision was handed down on Friday.
Well done Jackie!
“They are all against us we must unite” is the idea such individuals try and get a flock and money with. It was used by Hitler and other haters of humanity.
I paid a visit to Bills website.
I read the comments on his page about the recent decision by VCAT. I made a comment stating how hate of others is a sin and would not be condoned by any god.
Suprise, surprise it was moderated and not posted. SSTAR allowed Bill to post his ravings to this comments page. Pity he doesn’t subscribe to anyone else having a differing opinion on his website where they are adoring fans and sycophants.
Again, well done WAYOUT
God loves all.
*sigh*
The comments below are based on the Bill I know.
I am afraid Bills brain was deep fried when all those drugs he forced into his body exploded in his head. You can google him. There are many online articles about this. The paranoid delusions that there is a war exist only in the scattered memory of his own sexuality as he struggles with it. He is in fact more obsessed about men loving men then anyone I have known.
The journey into madness is difficult.
Would we trust Bill with a nuclear bomb? I think not. Would we trust him with a gun, no . He is a loner. He does not even speak for the Brethren. Over the years he has alienated many people so he now his is chronically unemployable. Even his PHD was put on hold over and over. I hope he can finish some day.It has been many years.
It is sad to see a tragedy played out. Even Today Tonight nolonger wants to entertain such negative people as society and Christians have moved on.
Well he will need God’s love to overcome all this, and a good psychiatrist for his homophobia.
@ Bill “When governments grant special rights to activist minority groups…”. I agree, yes they are. and they are religious groups who are exempt from treating people equally who are allowed these special rights.
Tell me the last time you were stopped from entering the Peel because you are a Christian? Well done WAYOUT
I feel this is the same Bill Muehlenberg Ex drug addict and born again American Christian imposing his lifestyle on us. A congregation of 10 or so I think it was, less excluding family.
If he claps hard enough he will fly off. All that rolling of the eyes and talking in tongues. I thought they were busy attacking Muslims and Catholics. Our turn now I guess.
Ah life is good. I trust the “101” Reverends who marched in Mardi Gras over the likes of such fools. They were made up of Catholic Priest, Baptist Ministers and even Nuns. The message was many good Christians love and accept people who are gay just the way they are. Perhaps Bill should rant to the Nobel Prize winning Arch Bishop Desman Tutu who advocates for Same-Sex Marriage.
The Bible was used to kill 5 million Jewish people and 50,000 people who were gay in the death camps. Yes some only see hate in it. Hate for fellow man. But others see love like the millions of Christians around the world who accept Gay and Lesbian people. My Uniting Church welcomes this move. It is time the haters were not allowed give Jesus a bad name.
Scientist have been able to create lesbian mice, and replicate gay fruit flies but that cannot cure the ignorant.
Perhaps Bill and Peter and Jenny Stokes can join forces and have a following of 12. I welcome them to Mardi Gras with hundreds and thousands of people celebrating life. Or Middsummer with over a hundred thousand people. No? No takers? Shame.
I wonder if Bill ever finished his studies after all those years of deferring. Perhaps this twists his view of the Bible as it does take an education to understand it. I seem to recall even the Australian family Association parting ways with the likes of Bill.
And what of the Buddhist, the Muslims, the many Christian denominations. Do they have to follow a perverted version of Christianity that seeks to hate all others including Christians?
The haters are losing the right to hate, to exclude people from essential services such as hospitals, to deny medication at a pharmacy, to incite violence. The few Christian haters are now a voice only to themselves. They are the minority.
Ah what a Modern Family we belong to.
The world will end one day. It will be from a hater with a nuclear bomb, not from a loving gay couple.
Dear Bill,
I am a Christian and I support the findings in this case.
It is worth pointing out that when the WayOut camp eventually went ahead, it did so on a Christian-owned campground, one owned by the YMCA no less.
It’s also worth pointing out the many of the young people involved in the camp are Christians themselves, as are many staff members.
It’s probably a good idea to note that WayOut has links to Christian charity groups, such as Uniting Care.
And of course, WayOut didn’t struggle to find independent Christian experts to testify on their behalf in the court case itself.
So, really, their victory shouldn’t be seen as an attack on Christianity because true Christians were a vital element among the victors themselves. In reality, the victory was over discrimination and unfairness perpetrated by a small minority of people who claim to have welcomed Jesus into their hearts but struggle to understand that the message of Jesus is one of love.
The religous freedom to hate is dead. I might join the Salt Shakers and Bankrupt a few nasty people.
Peter Stokes, as far as I’m aware, I have not yet come across a variation on Christianity which says it is acceptable to treat other people with disdain, contempt and complete disregard.
If the Brethren do not approve of homosexuality or bisexuality or whatever, then so be it, that is their right. But that DOES NOT give them the right to condemn other people, and treat them with complete inequality. If they were really of a Christian attitude, they would treat everyone as human beings, regardless of sexual orientation, and leave the judgement to God.
And furthermore, they are operating a business which has been set up to serve the general public. They have no legal right to refuse service based on religious and/or moral grounds. The youth group did nothing but enquire after the use of the camp site. The only grounds for refusal would be if they had proven to be poor customers on a previous occasion (which we know is not the case, as they had never been there before), OR if they were known to be planning something illegal, which again, we know not to be true, as the last time I checked, it was not against the law to hold workshops teaching young people of gay or bisexual orientation how to deal with homophobia in a positive way.
Even More Anti-Christian Bigotry
We live in an age in which no group or person is allowed to be offended, vilified or discriminated against
Peter, I always likened the Exclusive Brethren to the Brown Shirts.
Christian freedom, well lets look at stigma against men of same sex orientation, oppression of women, the sanctioning of Nazi Germany, paedophilia (and the list goes on)…really it is the security blanket of the seriously deluded.
Unfortunately 5k is little more than a scratch on the nose for the Brown Shirts, but it is a step.
No doubt your god knows how to hate Peter.
Dear Peter, didn’t know that discrimination = freedom…
Religious Freedom is dead – very dissapointing result and will be appealed by the Brethren.
Bloody Brilliant!!
Nursing homes and hospitals should be next.