Marriage equality advocacy group Equal Love held a rally in the Murray Street Mall yesterday to protest against laws which allow religious based schools to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ school students and teachers.
Speaking to passing shoppers speakers from Equal Love said that last year’s postal survey on marriage equality had shown that Australia’s overwhelmingly supported marriage equality but conservative forces were now trying to “roll back the clock”, labelling it a “revenge” attack.
Speakers taking to the microphone claimed that the Morrison government had a plan to expand the current provisions in the anti-discrimination laws giving religious bodies a greater ability to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people.
Speaking to OUTinPerth, Miranda Wood from Equal Love said it was revolting that school teachers could be fired from their jobs, and students could be expelled from their schools, simply because of their sexuality.
Equal Love asked passers-by to sign petitions and take social media photos to show their support for the exemptions to current anti-discrimination laws being removed.
Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would work to remove the exemptions from federal anti-discrimination laws that allow students to be expelled over their sexuality.
The Prime Minister’s vow to take action was prompted by the public outcry over the laws which were brought to attention following the leaking of sections of the Ruddock Review into religious freedom. Equal Love spokesperson Miranda Wood said LGBTI people could not take the PM at his word.
“I think we have to be very wary of empty promises. I think we don’t have it in the bag until it’s set in stone and made law. We’ve seen a lot of these kind of promises before, we’ve seen people from both sides of politics say things rhetorically and then fail us, fail the community, down the track. We want protection for people in the workplace and for young people to be able to attend school is an atmosphere where their sexuality and gender is not up for discussion.” Wood said.
Wood said despite the Prime Minister saying he would take action, he could not be trusted.
“Scott Morrison was one of the leaders of the No Campaign, which was horribly detrimental to LGBTI people in this country,and I think if he does – great – but it will be because of pressure from community members and activists. We can not rely on anything the Liberal party says, and we’re ready for a fight.”
The Equal Love spokesperson said both federal and state laws needed to be changed to ensure protections for both teachers and students. Wood said Equal Love were supportive of the private members bill put forward by The Greens’ Alison Xamon.
Graeme Watson
