Members of the Rainbow Rebellion gathered at Forrest Chase on August 24 to oppose the
proposed Religious Discrimination Bill, which outlines protections for people against discrimination on the basis of their religion or religious belief. This bill would allow religious people and institutions to intimidate, insult and ridicule someone based on their sexuality.
Public servant, Tahlia Briggs said these changes to discrimination law would impact her personally as she already has to hide her sexual orientation due to strong religious beliefs in her workplace.
“In the public sector there is a lot of people in higher positions that have these discriminatory
religious views as they often throw around slurs like ‘poofta’ and ‘lesbo',” Miss Briggs said. “When you are figuring out your sexuality it becomes a big part of your personality so having to suppress that is really hard. In my workplace I have never had the opportunity to just say I am gay”.
Without explicit protections, the Religious Discrimination Bill would allow people in the LGBTQI+ community to be harassed in the workplace or even dismissed on the basis of their sexuality.
“If this bill was to pass I have a lot of fear that if my employers find out I am gay they would judge me or even decide to give me no more shifts,” Miss Briggs said. “It is crazy that people who have created this discrimination may now not be held accountable due to their religious freedoms”.
“Solely targeting someone based on their sexuality should never be ok”.
Comments