How Australia’s Religious Discrimination Bill Rips at Australian Politics.

GayCarBoys covers all manner of stories, mainly about cars, but when we see an injustice perpetuated against LGBTI people, we get angry.

It is no secret that Australia has moved right, and kept moving in that direction. In fact, the extreme right has taken over, resulting in such abominations as the Marriage Equality Survey. This survey asked the public whether they thought gays and lesbians should be have the right to marry.

The Ultra wing government could have simply passed the law but chose to abrogate their responsibility instead.

In my lifetime, gay sex was illegal. When Australia was taken over by the British in the late 18th C, laws such as the 1533 Buggery Act came with them. It fueled the hatred of gays which still permeates through 21st century Australia today.

My home state of Queensland decriminalized “homosexual acts” in 1991, little more than 30 years ago. Since then, Australian’s have seen the passing of a bill allowing gay marriage as well.

At the heart of the anti-gay sentiment is religion, the very same organisations now demanding their right to continue their discrimination. They’ve lost the battle to persecute gays and lesbians, and have turned their cynical attention to our trans brothers and sisters.

In particular, the religious conservatives want give schools the right to expel trans students, and fire trans teachers. The bible is quoted in support, but this highlights the willingness of bible readers to ignore passages that do not fit their bigoted view, namely: the wearing of clothes made of mixed thread, the stoning of women, and the extreme prosecution of “adulterers”. A casual glance finds many other such examples, none of which are tolerable in 21st century society.

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ABOVE: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Hillsong Church with Disgraced Pastor, Brian Houston

Those believers who accept that Jesus existed, ignore the fact that Jesus made no reference to homosexuals, none whatsoever. The bible, a collection of stories written thousands of years ago, still affects mankind today. There are hundreds of religions, with many hundreds of gods, and each cult jostles for superiority, claiming their religion is the only true religion. Let them have at it, but religion and government must separate, and stay that way.

It is this religious fervour that created anti LGBTI laws and the discrimination that comes with it. It is reasonable to assume that LGBTI people existed prior to the creation of religion, yet for millennia, religious zealots practiced hate, not love. It seems they must have a focus for their hatred.

That brings us to the current issue in Australia, and the rift caused by conservative politics.

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is an extreme right-wing Christian. He has poor polling, has failed on his COVID response, covered sexual abuse in Parliament House, covered up billions in the theft and misuse of public money, and overseen the collapse of trust in government. And, those are only the top few achievements. He has also failed to deliver on election promises, and lied about renewable energy, EVs, and Australia’s carbon emissions, to protect party donors such as fossil fuel corporations and big miners.

It then makes it difficult for Labor to make progressive politics acceptable. Labor has voted to support the bill in the lower house of Australia’s federal parliament, with a view to amending it in the senate. It would have been preferrable for Labor to have voted the bill down, but the Liberal/National coalition would then have said Labor supported the discrimination against religious organisations.

This is not true of course, with the progressive side of politics eschewing any kind of persecution. Although I have been disappointed with the Labor refugee policy, it demonstrates how conservative parties have made it impossible for progressive politics to show any kind of compassion.

It would be churlish to talk about the rise of conservative politics without mentioning the Murdoch news outlets. They make no secret of their right to publish opinion under the heading of “news.” It doesn’t have to be true; it just has to stick. Of the many examples, none is more galling than the “carbon tax” lie. The Gillard government’s excellent carbon trading scheme was labelled a tax by the Liberal and National coalition, and used to demonise any attempt to reduce carbon emissions.

The battle ground is clear: right VS wrong, and the solution is to enshrine human rights in law. Some argue we have that already and if so, how do we find ourselves still in this appalling battle. Others think this is nothing more than a distraction from a decade of conservative incompetence and abuse of power.

Either way, LGBTI rights are important to those who want them, anyone who wants a fair and just society should be angry. LGBTI students should never have to worry that they will be persecuted as gay men have been.

I spent the first half of my life without the right under law to love whom I wanted. We have since won that right, and I would fight for the same rights for our trans brothers and sisters, and against religion being used as an instrument of torture. It isn’t just the law that has to change, but public attitude must change with it.

The correctly named Religious Discrimination Bill seeks to allow discrimination, and we must say no.

UPDATE: This hideous bill is now shelved and will not see the light of day again before the election. This attempt to persecute LGBTI students has utterly failed, and blown up on the PM’s face.