Almost 95 per cent of LGBTI Australians oppose government’s leaked religious bill

Almost 95 per cent of LGBTI Australians oppose government’s leaked religious bill

A new survey has found that 94.5 per cent of LGBTI Australians are opposed to government legislation that would allow indirect discrimination at faith-based schools on the grounds of a school’s religious ethos.

Advocacy group just.equal conducted the survey of almost 2,000 LGBTI Australians, which was sent to the Labor-backed Senate inquiry into the discrimination faced by LGBTI students and staff.

While the government has been dragging its feet on the issue, leaked legislation has prompted advocates to speak out against compromises on the issue.

The government’s leaked bill bans discrimination against LGBTI students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but allows it on the basis of “religious ethos”.

It doesn’t protect teachers, other staff, or parents.

95.2 per cent of survey respondents opposed to the bill said they would rather wait for better legislation, while more than 90 per cent also wanted teachers, other staff, and parents to also be protected.

Spokesperson for just.equal, Rodney Croome, said LGBTI Australians delivered an emphatic ‘no’ to any compromises allowing for continued discrimination.

“The message to law-makers is clear – if you want to tackle discrimination, tackle it all,” he said.

Almost 500 survey respondents explained their reasons for opposing all discrimination, the most common reason being that faith-based schools shouldn’t have special exemptions from discrimination law while in receipt of public funds.

An interim report on the Senate inquiry is due to be released this week, while the government is expected to introduce its legislation soon.

Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens LGBTIQ+ spokesperson, said two weeks ago that the Greens had amended the Terms of Reference for the inquiry to ensure that it would report its findings on both LGBTI students and staff discrimination this week.

“Removing discrimination against both students and staff is urgent. It must happen this year,” Rice said.

“Labor’s original dates would have informed legislation regarding only students this year, leaving teachers hanging out to dry until next year.”

“The Greens amendment means the inquiry will be quick and we can get on with the job of removing discrimination in schools before parliament and schools rise for the summer break.”

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2 responses to “Almost 95 per cent of LGBTI Australians oppose government’s leaked religious bill”

  1. Oh wow, the lawsuits which will flow under the “religious ethos” defense.

    Oppose a teacher or student for being gay but accept school fees from a gay parent or engage with third parties (contractors, donors, volunteers etc) who are gay? You’ve just eliminated your “ethos” defense, at least a good lawyer will make that case.

    What about all the other “ethos” values? As recently as the times of the grandparents of today’s private religious schoolkids that ethos meant kids at good private religious schools were never exposed to trans or gay kids/teachers (obviously) but also meant no unmarried pregnant kids/teachers, no communist kids/teachers, no atheist kids/teachers, no divorced teachers/parents (Catholic schools) and no Catholic kids/teachers (decent Protestant schools). Let’s see all of these attributes get the same protections today as are proposed to be enabled for the gay community!

    But no, because the Liberal Party defines Christians as hypocritical fuckwits who mean “gay bashing” when they say “ethos”. How’s that working for moderate Christians?

    And what is the Liberal Party or any political party doing about the religious freedom of young female Muslim students to not have to wear a hijab? Unlike the gay stuff which is symbolically important but let’s face it gay kids aren’t being kicked out of Christian schools, tens of thousands of young Aussie women are forced to wear a political garment like a hijab against their personal choice by men at Islamic schools, and they get funded by our taxes for the privilege. Many Islamic countries make the hijab optional for women so it’s hardly a controversial position to take, it’s only compulsory in Saudi Arabia, Iran and a few other places. And Australian Islamic schools. Fuck that shit.