GAY TRUTH

Australia is in the middle of a debate as to the extent to which religious freedom rights should be accommodated in legislation introducing “same sex marriage” ( SSM ). Those who object to this idea tell us that: Christian conservatives – following the lead of their counterparts in the United States – seek to use freedom of religion to justify discrimination against members of the LGBTQI community . This agenda is now being pursued under the guise of the debate for a marriage equality bill. (“After the yes vote, let’s not remove one inequality and replace it with another” Anja Hilkemeijer, The Guardian online , 22 Nov 2017) The word “discrimination” is a notoriously slippery one, and I would like to challenge the view that recognising religion freedom in changing marriage laws amounts to unjustified discrimination. At the moment the legislation to implement SSM, a Bill introduced in his private capacity by Senator Dean Smith, already recognises a couple of areas where a religiou

Meet Evan. According to the current edition of Time Magazine , he and his baby are the new frontier in the brave new world same-sex marriage is creating for us. Biologically, Evan is a woman but we are not allowed to call her this. Despite transitioning some years ago to identify as a man, Evan proved her femininity by dialing back the testosterone supplements enough to allow her to fall pregnant. Evan, the woman identifying as a man, recently became the mother of a child through sperm donation. This is because Evan's partner is a woman and despite Evan identifying as a man, the couple were unable to conceive without outside help. For the record, ACL believes donor conception and surrogacy in all its forms is ethically problematic. The photo of the bearded, hairy chested Evan breast feeding his/her baby is confronting. Some things just can't be unseen. I've made another PC faux pas by referencing breast feeding in this context. Time, which celebrates this development as