Balancing Religious Freedom Rights is not “Discrimination”
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...